“If you check on the ale ‘stock’ onboard, there were two divided areas...one for the crew, and one for the passengers. Not to say all of the 102 sipped ale regularly...but historians kinda note that when they reached US coastline...the stock of Pilgrim ale was nearing an end-point. I might go and suggest that a fair number of Pilgrims were blitzed and never noticed an issue with the crammed nature of the boat.”
John Howland, one of the indentured servants, seems he had a bit too much to drink and was somehow swept overboard, fortunately for him and his descendants, he somehow grabbed a rope and was hauled back on board.
I love to tell the story of how I am descended from a guy who fell OFF of the Mayflower...John Howland! It is true, BTW.
I think I read somewhere that that rope was sometimes left trailing behind the ship for just the reason the if a person fell overboard they could grab onto it.