During the last few evenings, when I’m not watching my favorite sport team lose, or drinking Belgian beer that is named after duck sounds (Kwak), I have been reading “Mayflower, A Story of Courage, Community, and War” by Nathaniel Philbrick. I’ve been wanting to read it for awhile and thought this would be a good time of year to read it. Nothing says Thanksgiving like a book about Pilgrims, drinking a beer, and some football games.
The reason I’m writing about this on Beer Living is a fact that was brushed over pretty quickly in the book (at least the part I’ve read so far). The Mayflower had spent weeks at sea. Lousy weather. The tiny ship was tossed. If not for the courage of the fearless…eh…wait, wrong story….
So the Mayflower had spent weeks at sea. Pieces of the rigging have splintered. The ship is awash in cold seawater and rain from the storms. People are seasick. Two people have died. At times they feel lost. But they see this as part of the big plan and they will get there at the right time. But then something unthinkable happens. From the aforementioned book:
“…They had long since run out of firewood, and they were reaching the slimy bottoms of their water casks. Of even greater concern, they were down to their last casks of beer….”
Oh No! Not the Beer!……
No wonder they were so thankful to finally set foot on land.