Rum, pirates and the Caribbean
By: Purity Bakery | Posted: 23rd June 2006
The history of rum is inseparably linked to the Sea and its legacy is traced through the Naval explorations of the 16th century, the slave trade and the seafaring tales of the Pirates who made a name for themselves on the back of many a rum infused journey.
So romantic is the history of rum that it has long since been adopted as the drink of the working class man throughout the world. This might be directly linked to the defeat of Napoleon's fleet, at the crucial battle of Trafalgar, by Admiral Nelson's rum drinking crew or perhaps attributed to swashbuckling, freedom tales of the pirates of the day. Whichever, rum has long since been associated with the 'fighting man' and the strength of victorious sailors fighting for the New World
One of the main challenges of 16th Century sea voyages was providing seafaring crews with a liquid supply to last long journeys. Navy Captains turned to the most readily available sources of liquid in the day – water and beer, with no real discrimination made between them. Because water contained in casks quickly spoiled by algae and beer soured when stored for too long British Royal Navy Sailors often drank their rations of beer first and water second, sweetening the water with beer or wine to make it more palatable. The longer the voyage, the larger the cargo of liquid required, and the larger the problems of storage would be
As, seafaring vessels entered the Caribbean regions captains took advantage of a cheaper and more readily available source of liquid sold by local sugar cane plantations called "kil devil" – a foul tasting by-product of sugar cane processing which later became known as rum. Rum quickly replaced beer rations and became an official ration on British Navy ships from 1655 onwards.
Reportedly the rather large rum rations on board British Naval ships were causing "rumbullion" amongst the seamen and such drunkenness and discipline problems caused Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon, in 1740, to issue an order to dilute rum rations with sugar and lime juice (possibly why the mixture was reputed to fight off the sailors 'lurgy' or scurvy). Due to his nickname – the 'old grog' – the new mixture attained the new name of 'grog'.
Dilution ratio's varied aboard different ships and over time but the tradition continued until 'Black tot day' on July 30, 1970 when the last "Up Spirits" rum measure was served aboard British Royal Navy ships.
Many of the famous pirates of the 17th and 18th centuries were recruited from plundered Naval ships and consisted of sailors tired of poor pay, limited rum rations, nutritional diseases and the harshness of their ships captain. Possessing seafaring skills and offered an equal share in any loot pirated, it's not hard to see why many chose a pirates life of freedom, democracy and frivolity. Notorious Pirates, Captain Kidd and Morgan Nelson both started their seafaring careers as Naval Officers.
Without the Crown's strict rum rationing guidelines, pirate captains capitalized on the popularity of rum to gain the favour of crew and rum was often the larger cargo and the preferred bounty aboard their ships. The search for rum was constant and many a vessel plundered as a result of its crew being too drunk to take proper charge of the ship.
So favoured was rum, that the scarcity of it could be the cause of out and out rebellion on pirate ships. The meanest of all pirates from history, Blackbeard, once stated:
"Such a day; rum all out. Our company somewhat sober; a damned confusion amongst us! Rogues a plotting. Talk of separation. So I looked sharp for a prize [and] took one with a great deal of liquor aboard. So kept the company hot, damned hot, then all things went well again."
It is therefore no accident that rum became so popular around the most prosperous pirating "Golden Era" of 1650 – 1740. This was also, coincidentally, about the time that the Slave trade begin to take off and New England entered the triangle between Africa and the Caribbean with rum being used as the currency of the slave trade.
Molasses would leave the Caribbean for New England, be distilled into Rum, which would be shipped to Africa in exchange for slaves, who would then be shipped to the Caribbean regions to tend the sugar plantations and harvest more sugar cane, to be converted to molasses. So prolific was this industry that by the mid 17th century Tiny Rhode Island had more than 30 distilleries, 22 of them in Newport and in Massachusetts, 63 distilleries produced 2.7 million gallons of rum.
Sugar, rum, slaves, sailors and pirates all had a hand in the development of the new world, from whichever stand point you look at it. So intrinsic is the relationship between all of these components that it is hard to decipher which would exist without the existence of the other.
This article provided by Purity Bakery Ltd, the only bakers of the original Bacardi Rum Cake. Learn more about Caribbean Rum Cakes at http://www.bacardirumcake.com
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Purity Bakery Ltd, the only bakers of the original Bacardi Rum Cake. Learn more about Caribbean Rum Cakes at http://www.bacardirumcake.com
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