Smoking a cigar as a Pirate?

[Bright]

We do not know when it was first grown, or smoked, but we can be pretty certain that the inhabitants of Europe were unaware of tobacco until after Columbus s epic voyage of 1492.

Two of his sailors reported that the Cuban Indians smoked a primitive form of cigar, with twisted, dried tobacco leaves rolled in other leaves such as palm or plantain. In due course, Spanish and other European sailors caught the habit, as did the Conquistadors, and smoking spread to Spain and Portugal and eventually France, most probably through Jean Nicot, the French ambassador to Portugal, who gave his name to nicotine. Later, the habit spread to Italy and, after Sir Walter Raleigh's voyages to America, to Britain.

Smoking was familiar throughout Europe - in pipes in Britain - by the mid-16th century and, half a century later, tobacco started to be grown commercially in America. Tobacco was originally thought to have medicinal qualities, but there were already some who considered it evil and it was denounced by Philip II of Spain, and James I of England. The word cigar originated from sikar, the Mayan-Indian word for smoking, which became cigarro in Spanish, although the word itself, and variations on it, did not come into general use until the mid-18th century.

Cigars, more or less in the form that we know them today, were first made in Spain in the early 18th century, using Cuban tobacco. At that time, no cigars were exported from Cuba.

By 1790, cigar manufacture had spread north of the Pyrenees, with small factories being set up in France and Germany.

As a 1720's Pirate, would it not be possible to have taken a Spanish vessel with Cigars onboard carried by a wealthy Spaniard?

The Dutch, too, started making cigars using tobacco from their Far Eastern colonies. But cigar smoking only became a widespread custom in France and Britain after the Peninsular War (1808-14), when returning British and French veterans made fashionable the habit they had learned while serving in Spain.

Production of "segars" began in Britain in 1820, and in 1821 an Act of Parliament was needed to set out regulations governing their production. Because of an import tax, foreign cigars in Britain were already regarded as a luxury item.

Soon there was a demand for higher quality cigars in Europe, and Spanish cigars were superseded by those made in Cuba, which was then a Spanish colony, where cigar production had started during the mid-18th century. Cigars, European smokers discovered, traveled better than tobacco. The cigar probably arrived in North America in 1762, when Israel Putnam, later an American general in the American War of Independence (1774-1778), returned from Cuba, where he had served in the British army. He came back to his home in Connecticut, where tobacco had been grown by settlers since the 17th century, with a selection of Havana cigars and large amounts of Cuban tobacco seed. Cigar factories were later set up in the Connecticut area, processing the tobacco grown from the Cuban seed. In the early 19th century American domestic production started to take off and Cuban cigars also began to be imported in significant numbers. But cigar smoking did not really boom in the United States until around the time of the Civil War in the 1860s, with individual brands emerging by the late 19th century. By then the cigar had become a status symbol in the United States. Would this not allow Civil War re-enactors to smoke cigars also?

During the same period, cigar smoking had become so popular among gentlemen in Britain and France that European trains introduced smoking cars to accommodate them, and hotels and clubs boasted smoking rooms. The after-dinner cigar, accompanied by glasses of port or brandy, also became a tradition. This ritual was given an added boost by the fact that the Prince of Wales, the future Edward VII and a leader of fashion, was a devotee, much to the annoyance of his mother, Queen Victoria, who disliked smoking.

Cigarettes, or paper cigars, first appeared on the scene in the early 19th century as a cheap alternative to cigars. The introduction of cigarette-making machines, in the 1880s, accelerated the growth in popularity of this form of smoking, which had become dominant by World War I.

As a response, the production of machine-made cigars began in Cuba in the 1920s, after which both the manufacture and smoking of handmade cigars fell into a slow but steady decline.

[Cap'n Black Jack]

I found this on cigarhandbook.com

"The Origin of the word cigar comes from the native language of the ancient Mayans. The Mayans called the cigar a "Ciq-Sigan" which the Spanish word "Cigarro" is derived from. The New English Dictionary of 1735 called the cigar a "seegar", and was later adapted into the modern word "cigar".

This from stopsmoking.com

"The first cigars as they are known now were made in Spain in the beginning of the 18th century."

This on Google Time lines

"1704 - This city was founded in 1704 by Cristobal Gil, and is connected with Caracas by railway, telegraph, and telephone. It also possesses public schools. Its manufactures consist of furniture, shoes, cigars, and candles. ISLAND OF MABGABITA.Its climate, like that of Caracas, is mild and genial. The population amounts to 6311 inhabitants, and its chief articles of commerce are coffee, sugar, corn, and other cereals. This city was founded in 1704 by Cristobal Gil, and is connected with Caracas by railway, telegraph, and telephone. It also possesses public schools. Its manufactures consist of furniture, shoes, cigars, and candles. ISLAND OF MABGABITA"

"1717 - The first European cigars were manufactured in Spain (Seville) beginning in 1717. At the beginning of the 19th century, the spanish cigars were replaced by cuban cigars because of their better quality."

There was a lot more out there, but I'll stop with this. I would think that "cigars" were around, but not like modern cigars.I think the answer might be 'yes".

[Jib]

How about a pirate crewing tobacco?

Or maybe using some snuff?

[Cap'n Black Jack]

How about a pirate crewing tobacco?

Or maybe using some snuff?

Pirates, and seamen, did chew on ship due to all the powder. I would think that snuff would be used as well, but I would have to look into that. To me snuff is an upper class almost politically correct way of using tobacco. I remember reading something about it where snuff was similar to cocaine in that you did it on the sly, not the effects. It was a way of feeding your habit when it wasn't ok to light up or spit out.

[Bright]

A little different than we thought.

About.com: http://www.drcigar.com/CigarsHistory.htm

Edited August 17, 2009 by Bright