ABSTRACT
The most storied tale of the colonizing of North America brings the Pilgrims to Massachusetts to establish Jerusalem in the New World. In the myth (as understood by schoolchildren) Puritans came to New England to escape religious persecution and ensure personal and religious freedom. The reality is more prosaic, because the real reason for landing at Plymouth was a shortage of beer and near-mutiny among the hired sailors of the Mayflower. The Pilgrims meant to land near the Hudson River but landed in Massachusetts because their hired sailors refused to carry them further in fear of running out of beer for the return voyage (Winslow and Bradford, 1986 (1622): 40; Bradford, 1856: 92; Lender and Martin, 1987: 2–3; Barr, 1999: 33). Water becomes rank in barrels during long voyages, and the sailors needed the beer to stay alive during the trip back to England.
