Captain Jim

I knew him not, but that he meant something to you, and that is enough. May those powers that are ease his passing and may he always live in your heart.

No, it was a Winnie the Pooh cereal spoon...

I guess the question still goes back to whether the rum of the pyrate/working class was the petrol-like triangle-trade rum, some unknown Island rum or some sort of rum that had been aged, filtered, blended and touched with a bit of the European-style distiller's art as it were.

My bad. Use of the word "traditional" was not the best. While some rum was being produced in the Caribbian, the vast majority of rum feuling the triangle trade was being produced in New England, especially after the late 1600's, as much as 4.6 million gallons annually. And that's just New England. There were hundreds of local distillers catering to the local trade that don't even count toward export production. Still haven't come accross any references to rum being aged or consumed without being mixed with something. The hunt is still on...

Bear in mind that rum was not traditionally made in the Islands. In the (simplified) "triangle trade", slaves went to the Caribbean to raise 'cane, molasses went to the Colonies to make rum, rum went to Africa to buy slaves. When the trade began to break down, rum began to be made in the Islands, cutting out the middleman. That said, some distillers in the Islands started earlier. Mount Gay Rum is the oldest still operating, having been in production since 1663. Now the rums we all drink today are usually aged to one extent or another. Rums of that time would most likely have been raw, clear, unfiltered and un-aged. They would have been shipped in uncharred barrels, and used long before the raw cask would have had any real effect on the rum itself. It would also likely have been "cask strength", bordering on explosive in some cases. Think Bacardi 151, but without the refinement. Also, alcohol can transmigrate through wood. Leave it long enough and you end up with much less bang for your buck (or shilling). As a side note, the highest proof outside of a lab is 180 proof. Anhydrous alcohol (200 proof) is explosive with a flash point of 55 degrees F. It catches fire spontaneously at room temp. So the rum you are looking for is colorless, generally tasteless (since no aging) and will have the characteristics of gasoline, much like pure moonshine. Now you know why they mixed it in punches or made grog from it. Pure, it might raise a blister on boot leather. Perhaps a better question would be, "When did rums start to become acceptible spirits to age in barrels, and who did it?"

I also notice that there is a Spoon and a Spoons, the latter a crewmember of the Relentless. No Forks, sad to say.

Yes, I know the Tick. I once used that very spoon trick to raise the spirits of a despondent cook in one of my restaurant kitchens. Just the mere obsurdity made him laugh and lighten up a little. But that was 30-35 years ago, way before the Tick.

I actually know that one. Molasses is a byproduct of sugar manufacture. There are generally three grades of molasses: Barbados or light, left after the first extraction of sugar; dark, left after the second extraction of sugar and; blackstrap, a name not used in GAOP, simply because sugar was not generally refined to that level then. Sugar was expensive, molasses was much less so. After the first or second extraction the molasses was then barreled up and sold as the most widely used sweetener of that time. When a recipe of that period calls for molasses, it doesn't mean blackstrap but more likely Barbados. Lesser classes would have used dark. No one used blackstrap because it didn't exist in any quantity until after WW I, when refining techniques improved and crystal sugar became more popular than molasses as a sweetener.

OK, if this is too suggestive, perform your duty with your moderator-like powers...

OK, then: FOOOOORRRRK! So much more to look forward to... Or, alternatively: And as we all know, spooning often leads to...

El Greco, 1600. Metal frames, ribbons around ears. From here, did it really take 120 years to put temples on?

I looked at Smoke and Oakum's site and I find that they make way too many "suppositions" regarding the production of rum. For instance they claim that copper pot stills couldn't be regulated for temperature. Not true. Water boils at 212 degrees F, no higher, at sea level. Alcohol boils at 172.4. A sugar/water/alcohol mixture would have boiled at a lower temp than 212, the temp increasing as alcohol and water are boiled off, but viscosity and color would have been an indicator for a distiller of any experience. Once the wort starts to get thick, the alcohol is long gone, as is most of the water. No way to burn that unless the distiller is sampling too much of the goods. As any good moonshiner knows, one would have to attend the still from begining to end. Sampling the liqour (visually and by taste) as the distillation progressed would have provided the distiller with all the information he needed. It's an art.

Mount Gay has been produced in Barbados since 1703. Provided they haven't changed anything in all that time, it should be close.

OK, just googled "historically accurate rum" and got this thread as the first hit. The second was a rum cake recipe posted on a mental health support site. Verrrry strange. More research is needed.

'Tis the Spring, and the renowned surgeon Mission has been out in the sun too long. And apparently without his Patrick Hand Original Planter's Hat . Pity.

Horrifying! You bloodthirsty bastard! How could you inflict wounds upon you adversaries with such diabolical tools of evil?!

Happy Birthday, my sweet! May ye have many more circumnavigations about the Sun.

Mistress Alexander would seem to have things well in hand and is looking out for us wayward pyrates, providin' for us a safe harbor yet again. Thank'e, Mistress, and all your co-conspirators too.

Congratulations and well done, mates! Can we get some pictures of the encampment/diorama? Did they let you camp there, y'know, t' get the smell right?

The excerpts are most delightful, sir. Thank you for your efforts.

Been 'ere for five or so o' them years. God bless us, everyone! Now bring on the rhum!

Happy Birthday mate! Many more trips about the Sun to ye!

I have always admired the grace of turn-off pistols, especially those styled as those Green pistols are. I shall have to build a pair one day.

I wasn't violated? Damn...

Brig, my sweet, you should have been there. Perhaps people would not have run in fear quite so quickly. I didn't take a camera so I have no picture of Doug, who, when in the character of Manynames, is something to behold. And avoid. Especially when he's upwind. However, if you have anything to sell, put him on it. He's nearly as good as Chrispy.