History Of Pirates and Rum.
“Arr Ye Matie!”
“Are you drunk Wetbrain? What the hell was that?” Harold had to ask.
“I just finished watching the first ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ movie Harold. So, you know I had to find out about the true history of pirates and rum.”
Harold just rolled his eyes and spoke. “OK give it to me.”
In the 16th and 17th centuries London was overcrowded with plenty of unemployment and plenty of very poor citizens. The ordinary poor seamen said ‘F**K You’ English government we will make money! Pirates were born. Let the plundering begin!
Rum in the Golden Age of Pirates, which was between 1650 to 1720, was used as currency in those days. So, at the beginning the Pirates would sail around the Mediterranean Sea in large sailing ships equipped with cannons plundering Spanish ships which had treasure, gold and barrels of Rum. Plenty of barrels of rum. The Pirates never used the rum to sell. They just drank it all.
Then when the Americas was discovered thanks to Christopher Columbus, piracy continued during the American Revolution and Napoleon wars. The Pirates attacked American merchant vessels about 1775 to 1800 for the booty of treasure and of course Rum.
Pirates today are mostly Somalian renegades sailing on old fishing boats with no sails or cannons and not tackling the huge merchant ships. But rich looking yachts are the right sized targets to plunder. Hopefully the yacht will have rum.
Rum in the earlier Pirate days was always in barrels and every Pirate had a tin cup. The oldest bottled rum was recently found. 59 bottles of 1780 Barbados Dark Rum was discovered at the Harewood Estate. Unfortunately, only 23 bottles were suitable for sale or drinking. One of these bottles of rum sold for $30,000 to a collector from Switzerland.
The Golden Age of Pirates produced some famous figures such as…
Through the ages of piracy there are 4 types of Pirates.
1) Corsairs – Plundered on the Mediterranean Sea from the 15th to the 18th centuries.
2) Buccaneers – From the Caribbean Island sailed under the skull and crossbones and pillaged Spanish treasure ships in the 17th century.
3) Privateers – The civil war in the early 1800s between Great Britain with Anglo-American against the Caribbean Privateers with Republics of Pirates were brutal battles. Serious cannons were shot at each other during that war. Unfortunately, the British won.
4) Somalian Pirates – Todays Pirates which are not as glamorized as the Pirates of the past. Still pillaging to this day.
“Very cool dramatic history of Pirates and rum, what did you think Harold?”
Harold replied. “Arr Ye Matie”.