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A Prank Led to America’s First Nominated Female to Office, and Other Lesser Known American History Facts

Khalid Elhassan December 13, 2019 33 min

32. A Treacherous Crossing

The Mayflower encountered plenty of rough seas en route to the New World. Encyclopedia Britannica

Sailing the Atlantic proved to be treacherous. The Mayflower’s voyage proceeded smoothly at first, but then the ship was beset by foul weather and fouler storms during the second half of the trip. 66 days after departing England – a voyage they had hoped would take a month – they finally spotted land at today’s Cape Cod, on November 9^th, 1620.

That was about 250 farther north than their original aiming point, and all else being equal, they would have simply sailed down the coast until they reached their intended settlement site. However, all else was not equal, and the Pilgrims faced a serious problem: they were out of beer. Back then, drinking water aboard ship was liable to go bad, especially on long voyages. Sea voyagers, such as the Mayflower’s Pilgrims, relied on beer as a drinking source that would not spoil. So running out of the brewed stuff was a big deal.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.