In the minds of most people, pirates and sailors and rum are inseparable. From the old song lyrics, “Yo Ho Ho and a bottle of rum,” to the rum drinking tradition in the British Navy, there’s no getting away from rum’s close history to sailing ships, sailors and war. Of course, the natural question is why? After all, Europeans were drinking things like whiskey, gin, wine and beer for years before rum was invented, so why did rum become the drink of choice during the Age of Sail? The answer: sugar.

Everyone knows about the gold and silver the Spanish hauled out of Latin America. What often gets overlooked in popular history is the real gold of the 17th Century: sugarcane. Before the discovery of the New World and the cultivation of sugarcane in Brazil and on Caribbean islands, Europe had no control of a sugar supply source. When they got it, sugar they cultivated in the New World for export back to the Old World made fortunes for many. In fact, Latin American sugarcane fields continued to supply much of the United States and Europe until World War 2.

Which brings us back to rum and distilleries like the Brugal Rum Distillery in the Dominican Republic. Like other Caribbean islands, planters cultivated sugarcane in the Dominican Republic for European markets. It didn’t take sugarcane workers long to discover that fermented sugarcane made an excellent drink. This eventually became rum. During the Age of Sail, fighting ships depended on islands like Hispaniola and others for their supplies. When they landed, the cheapest booze they could get their hands on in those days was rum and it soon became the sailor’s drink of choice.

If you’re interested in the history of sailing or rum, we recommend you visit the Brugal Rum Distillery in the Dominican Republic on your next visit. They produce over a million liters a year and will be happy to give you a tour free of charge. And, of course, while you’re there it would be rude not to sample some of the product!