The Straight Dope 11/25/2005

The Straight Dope -- By Cecil Adams
http://www.straightdope.com

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THE STRAIGHT DOPE 11/25/2005

Dear Cecil:

Is it true the Mayflower landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts
in 1620 because the ship ran out of beer? I have been told
that barrels of beer were the most voluminous and important
item in the hold because water couldn't stay drinkable on a
ship for that long. --James C., Massachusetts

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Cecil replies:

You heard right, more or less: The Mayflower colonists
decided to settle at Plymouth because they were running low
on beer. In an age when so many have lost their moral
compass, it's comforting to know that people in the old days
had their priorities straight.

Pretty much everything you think you know about the Pilgrims
is wrong (including their being called Pilgrims--that term
didn't catch on until centuries later), so it's not
surprising the beer angle slipped under the radar. Here's
the story, assembled with the help of my doughty research
assistant Bibliophage:

On November 9, 1620 [November 19 by modern reckoning], after
64 days at sea, the Mayflower sighted Cape Cod. You may
inquire: What sort of idiot would sail across the north
Atlantic at the height of storm season? The voyagers
probably asked themselves the same question. They'd
initially left Southampton, England, in August, but one of
their two ships, the Speedwell, sprang a leak. Repair
attempts failed, and by the time the travelers had
consolidated themselves on the Mayflower, a month had
passed. Then they spent an extra couple weeks under sail due
to bad weather, arriving just in time for winter. That was
problem one.

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/051125.html

STAFF REPORT

Dear Straight Dope:

Why is it a deadly sin to refreeze anything? What will
happen if you do? --Angela

Dear Straight Dope:

What exactly happens to food when it gets freezer-burned?
--Nabeel Ibrahim, Mountain View, California

SDSTAFF Una replies:

For a long time humans have known that chilling food retards
spoilage, and freezing preserves it even longer, provided
you don't mind some deterioration in taste and texture. Cold
helps fight two agents that ruin food: microorganisms and
the food's own enzymes. The colder you keep the food, the
more likely you are to prevent spoilage from molds and
bacteria, and the slower the enzymes within the food work to
chemically change it. However, even in a cold refrigerator
(33-40 degrees F), food will spoil, as anyone who has had to
clean a few science experiments out of the crisper drawer
can attest. Meat can be especially susceptible to this, as
bacteria will still slowly and steadily work to ruin your
food.

Freezing food stops most enzyme activity and inhibits
bacteria and mold growth. However--important point--it
doesn't sterilize food. Though some microorganisms die,
others resume activity as soon as the temperature increases.
A more immediate problem is that the water in the food
ruptures the cell membranes as it expands into ice crystals.
This effect is more pronounced in meat than in vegetables
and fruits according to Harold McGee:

For more, see: 
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mfreezerburn.html

STRAIGHT DOPE CLASSIC - 10/04/1985

Dear Cecil: 

For a good many years, Spain had a virtual monopoly on the
importation of gold from the New World. Although some of it
wound up on the ocean floor (witness recent discoveries near
Florida), we know that an awful lot actually made it to the
mother country, helping to make Spain one of the richest and
most powerful nations in Europe at the time. Today, of
course, it is neither. My question is, what happened to all
that gold? I've considered some of the possibilities, but
I'm not convinced: (1) The ship captains stole it. (2) The
kings of Spain made lousy investments. (3) The Portuguese
(or the French or the Italians or the North Africans or
somebody) stole it. (4) It was buried somewhere and the
folks who buried it forgot where. Since I assume the Spanish
have not developed a gold-fueled nuclear device, thereby
converting matter into energy, I think I've run out of
possibilities. Que paso? --Joseph M., Los Angeles

Dear Joseph:

The average person reading this question would probably
figure you've got filings in the brain pan, Joe, but in fact
you have asked a question that baffled Spaniards at the time
and has fascinated historians since. A couple things to keep
in mind: first, while the flood of gold into Spain in the
16th century seemed like a big haul at the time, by modern
standards it was a trivial amount. Total world gold
production during the 1500s is estimated to have been around
36 tons; from 1900 to 1976 it was 76,428 tons. (Which still
isn't all that much, incidentally. It's claimed that all the
gold that's ever been mined would fit into a cube 18 yards
on a side.)

Second, you're right in guessing that a lot of the gold was
stolen. One researcher estimates that 10 to 15 percent of
the New World gold intended for Spain never got there due to
theft, piracy, or other mishap.

For more, see:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_437.html

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