Boston is the original place from which the Pilgrim Fathers (or some of them, in the form of the Scrooby Congregation) first set sail in pursuit of religious freedom, in 1607. They were betrayed, caught by the local authorities and locked up. The following year they succeeded in getting to the Netherlands. They stayed there in Leiden until 1620, when they started out for their epic journey across the Atlantic, convening with others and provisioning the voyage on the Speedwell in London, joining up with the Mayflower in Southampton and setting sail for the New World. The Speedwell started to leak so they put into Dartmouth. They tried again but the problem continued and they only got as far as Plymouth, whence they departed in the Mayflower only, the Speedwell having been abandoned as unseaworthy.