35. The Pilgrims Settled in Massachusetts Because They Ran Out of Beer
Running out of beer can put a damper on festivities and harsh up partygoers’ buzz. It is a bummer, but seldom does the lack of beer produce results as far-reaching as occurred in the summer of 1620, when the Pilgrims ended up settling in Massachusetts because they were running low on beer. Nowadays, that might seem like a trifling reason for making such a momentous decision, but beer was a serious matter for the Pilgrims back then.
It began on August 5th, 1620, when the Mayflower departed Plymouth, England, for a journey across the Atlantic to the newly established Virginia Colony. In other words, when they set out, the Pilgrims’ destination had not been Massachusetts, but a point significantly further south. The vagaries of weather, the hardships of crossing an ocean in a seventeenth-century sailing ship, coupled with low levels of beer, led them to change their minds about where to settle.