The vessel departed on 1 April 1657 "entirely inadequate for the purpose", wrote historian Charles Holder, and an observer added, "they did go on in the name and power of the Lord." Weather required the ship to put in at Portsmouth, then again at Southampton, until on 11 April it finally cleared the English coastline for the open sea. The group sailed without a compass, or any knowledge of navigation, with Fowler writing, "We saw the Lord leading our vessel as if it were a man leading a horse by the head; we regarding either latitude or longitude." The original manuscript of the ship's log, endorsed by George Fox, was later kept at the Society of Friends in London. Its lengthy title is telling: "A true relation of the voyage undertaken by me, Robert Fowler, with my small vessel the "Woodhouse", but performed by the Lord like as he did Noah's ark wherein he shut up a few righteous persons and landed them safe even at the hill Ararat."