I’ll start this video off by saying that pirates ABSOLUTELY drank rum.
They also drank beer, wine, brandy, gin, and anything else that would get them drunk.
In fact, the buccaneers in the mid to late 1600’s drank much more wine and brandy than
they did rum.
Today we’ll take a look at what pirates drank and why!
It’s first important to explain the history of rum and where it came from.
Rum was a byproduct of sugar production, well, actually a byproduct of a byproduct - that
being molasses.
In the golden age of piracy sugar was one of the most important cash crop exports being
sent back to Europe.
Sugarcane was not native to the New World and the first sugar plantations were established
by the Portuguese in Brazil in the 1550’s.
By the 1650’s sugarcane had spread from South America to the Caribbean.
The cane was harvested by hand, the leaves were removed, and it was roughly chopped before
it was pull in a mill.
The mill used a stone wheel that crushed the cane and released the liquid sugar sap which
was collected, strained, refined, and boiled to remove the water.
Sugarcane stalks didn’t provide any shade and also blocked any available breezes making
it hell for the people who were harvesting it.
The cane leaves were also sharp and would easily cut skin.
For these reasons the work was almost always done by enslaved people.
Barbados sugar production was initially powered by Irish rebels or British criminals but as
the plantations grew in size enslaved Africans were brought to work in the sugarcane fields.
During the refining process molasses is left over.
Originally molasses was used for animal feed and fertilizer, but plantation slaves realized
that if you fermented it you got alcohol which could then be distilled into what we know
as rum.
During the Buccaneering period, which started around 1650, most pirates were taking Spanish
prizes and wine and brandy would have been more common.
We know this because the Spanish crown prohibited rum distillation out of fear that the cheap
booze would compete with Spanish wine and brandy.
British and French rum production had not become so widespread, but eventually the liquor
started to spread and by the early 1700’s rum was everywhere in the Americas.
It was cheaper and widely available.
Keep in mind that during the time period people almost never drank water especially on a ship,
the reason being that untreated water stored in barrels quickly developed algae and would
make someone very sick.
This also was the reason for the Royal Navy providing a rum ration.
Originally a sailor received a ration of 1 gallon of beer or a pint of wine each day.
Neither beer or wine kept very good in the tropical heat of the West Indies, but the
Royal Navy also allowed ships to substitute a half pint of spirits.
Pursers, the men who kept their ships supplied, would have found rum to be both affordable
and also would have preferred it to beer or wine as it took less space to store.
This half pint of rum was issued by itself and sailors would “prove” it was strong
but pouring it over gunpowder and seeing if it would still light.
It’s worth mentioning that this was NOT grog which is diluting the rum with a quart
of water and, later adding some lime or lemon juice.
this practice was introduced in the 1740’s long after the golden age of piracy had come
to an end.
In any case in the early 1700’s a lot of these Royal Navy sailors, who had developed
a taste - or addiction might be the better word - to rum were suddenly out of work after
the war of Spanish Succession came to an end.
Some of these sailors went on to become pirates and kept drinking rum.
Rum was also frequently being transported either North to the American colonies or East
to the old world.
There were also colonial distilleries operating in New England which imported their molasses
from the Caribbean.
This was referred to as the Colonial Molasses Trade.
As sugar and molasses was sent north new regular trade routes were established which proved
to be irresistible targets for pirates.
Not only were pirates able to rob ships carrying rum they also were able to steal the sugar
and molasses and then sell it to the people who were distilling the rum.
Years later Robert Lewis Stevenson would further cement the relationship between pirates and
rum when he included the song “Fifteen men on dead man’s chest, Yo Ho Ho and a bottle
of rum” in his novel Treasure Island and Disney would further cement it with Captain
Jack Sparrow’s constant thirst for it.
I hope you enjoyed this episode!
I want to thank my patrons 1660, Larry W, and Patrick Chamberlain!
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