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Captain
Morgan is a brand of rum,
named after the 17th-century Caribbean privateer, Henry Morgan. Even
though the label of the bottle portrays Morgan as a "pirate",
Henry Morgan himself was offended in his lifetime when people referred to
him as a pirate,
as he considered himself to be a privateer (one whose nation paid and
licensed them to attack and plunder an enemy's shipping).
Henry
Morgan began producing rum in 1680 on the island of Jamaica.
In 1944, the Seagram Company started producing rum under the name Captain
Morgan Rum Company. In 1983, Captain Morgan Original Spiced rum was
introduced to the United States. Captain Morgan is now produced by The
Diageo Corporation.
Captain
Morgan's Rum is distilled from sugar cane. The combination of the type of
yeasts employed for fermentation, distillation method, aging conditions,
and blending determines the characteristic flavor of rum. Made with
molasses, water, mash and yeast, Captain Morgan Original Spiced is
distilled in a continuous still. Once distilled, the clear spirit is aged
in oak barrels for up to a year, adding a golden color and lots of
character to the rum before the flavors and spices are added. The
brand’s taste is achieved through a proprietary recipe, which is blended
into the rum mixture at the final stages of production, making full use of
spices indigenous to the Caribbean
Islands. Imported and Bottled by Captain Morgan Rum Co., Baltimore, MD,
Puerto Rican Rum with Spice and Other Natural Flavors.
Captain
Morgan is by volume, the fourth largest brand of spirits in the United
States, and the eleventh largest in the world. In 2004, 6 million 9-liter
cases were sold. Most Captain Morgan rum is sold in the United
States, Canada,
Great
Britain, South
Africa and in continental Europe.
Flavors
-
Original
Spiced - A gold rum with various spices, 70 proof.
-
Silver
Spiced - A white spiced rum with hints of vanilla, 70 proof.
-
Parrot
Bay - Lighter flavored rum drinks. Flavors include coconut, mango,
pineapple, or passionfruit. 42 proof (formerly 48)
-
Black
Label - A dark rum from Jamaica. U.S. 80 proof.
-
Private
Stock - Captain Morgan's "high end" rum. 80 proof.
-
Tattoo
- A very dark rum with fruit flavors described as berry or citrus,
introduced to compete with Jaegermeister
for marketshare. 70 proof.
Trivia
In
Ernest Hemingway's novel, To Have and Have Not, the main character is
named Captain Harry Morgan, who smuggles rum through the Caribbean.
Ironically, he smuggles Bacardi.
The
character art for the "Captain Morgan" brand is drawn by
artist Don Maitz.
A
character named Captain Morgan briefly appears in the first of the
Pirate Pimm films.
The
pirate depicted on the label bears far more of a resemblance to
Bartholomew Roberts than Henry Morgan. This is ironic as Roberts was a
teetotaler.
The
real Sir Henry Morgan in a popular woodcut,18th century
Not
many people know the story behind the guy wearing the red cape, blue pants
and funny hat on every bottle of Captain Morgan’s Rum, probably not even
people who love Captain Morgan’s. This essay will clear things up for
people who thought he was just created as a clever marketing ploy. He
actually existed and he was one of the badest dudes to sail the Caribbean.
Along with hurricanes and sea monsters, if you were a Spanish captain
plying the waters of the Caribbean, an encounter with this guy and his
crew would prove to be your worst nightmare.
Sir Henry Morgan was born in the Welsh town of Llanrhymni in 1635.
Although most of his early childhood is unknown it is known is that he
arrived in Barbados as young man. Some historians say that he was
kidnapped from Bristol and shipped West to work as a slave boy on a
plantation. This was not uncommon in those days, but unlike an African
slave, Morgan was probably an indentured servant that would have had his
freedom granted after seven years of employment. In 1655, Oliver Cromwell
dispatched a large force from England to capture the island of Hispaniola
from Spain. The flotilla arrived at Barbados and landed on the island to
try to gain volunteers. The amount of soldiers grew as slaves and servants
began to abandon their masters and join up. Nineteen year-old Morgan was
one of these kids.
Other sources say that he was drafted in England for the invasion and then
sent to the West Indies, not kidnapped. Anyhow, what is known is that
Morgan was one of the 8000 soldiers who fought the Spanish for control of
Santo Domingo. The English were routed and it proved to be an embarrassing
defeat. The contingent dared not return to England empty handed. So later
in that year the group took the sparsely inhabited island of Jamaica from
the Spanish, making Port Royal it’s capital.
Imagine the Jamaican town of Port Royal in the 17th century. The docks
bustling with ships bringing furniture from Europe, raw materials from
America and slaves from Africa. The smells wafting in the hot breeze. The
sounds of horse hooves and curse words from drunks. The mud streets
leading from the wharfs lined with taverns and general stores. Port Royal
was ground zero for English pirates. There must have been a lot of
scoundrels roaming the streets.
While living in Port Royal, Morgan started his buccaneering apprenticeship
under various pirates. The British government preferred to call them
privateers to make them sound more professional, but lets call a spade a
spade. It wasn’t long before Morgan was harassing Spanish galleons with
his own crew of motley soldiers. In 1663, he joined up with the fleet of
Captain Christopher Mings to conduct raids on the towns of Vildemos,
Trujillo, and Granada and 1666 he had obtained control of a ship in Edward
Mansfield’s expedition to take over Spanish forts. When Christopher
Mings was captured and killed by the Spanish, a quick meeting was held
with all the boats lashed together in order to decide who would lead. The
men chose Morgan to be their new admiral.
In 1668 he was commissioned by Sir Thomas Modyford to capture some Spanish
prisoners in order to obtain information about a plot to capture Jamaica.
Morgan with 10 ships and 500 men sailed to Cuba and wreaked havoc on the
port town of Puerto Principe. Next Morgan got the order to go down to
Portobelo. This is where things get real nasty. Landing in the cover of
darkness, his men committed atrocious acts such as rape, murder, and
torture. They even used Jesuit priests and nuns as human shields as they
rushed the third most impenetrable fort. The grey haired Governor of
Panama put up a futile resistance but became frightened at the brutality
of Morgan’s men. The Governor wisely consented to paying a ransom so
Morgan would leave. After raiding all the gold that was in the counting
house, Morgan set sail for home base in Jamaica with 300 slaves and
250,000 silver coins. When word of the atrocities at Portobelo reached
London, the English monarchy feigned ignorance but knew full well what was
going on. Without this brutality there would be no plunder for them to
take, so Morgan was not reprimanded.
Captain
Morgan bottle label
After the raid Morgan focused mainly on investing in his sugar plantation,
but in 1670 he was called back into service. The Governor of Jamaica
ordered Morgan to plunder the city of Panama. It became the most daring
and audacious raids of his career. Upon Morgan’s orders a multi-national
group of 2000 French and English pirates assembled in 36 ships off the
coast of Jamaica and set sail for Panama.
After weeks at sea, Morgan’s men made it to the coast of Panama and
landed 3 kilometers from Fort San Lorenzo which defended the mouth of the
Chagres River. As they walked through the jungle they slowly approached
the fort and burnt it by sending a flaming arrow over the top which landed
on a thatch roof. It still took three days of fighting and it cost them
100 men. At the town of Venta Cruces the Chagres became to shallow for
their boats, so Morgan left men to stay with them. The rest, about 1600,
set off on foot on the camino cruces trail that led to Panama.
The march must have sucked. Morgan thought that he could obtain food by
pillaging towns along the camino cruces and killing whatever animals they
could find. But there were no towns and the men were probably so loud that
they scared off all the animals. They were reduced to eating leather,
insects, bark, and whatever plants they could find. They also encountered
a jungle filled with poisonous snakes and many men fell ill with malaria.
Much of the trail was covered by thick undergrowth which they had to hack
through by cutlass. To make matters worse, they were harassed all the way
down trail by stealthy Indians who fired volleys of arrows at their lines.
After about one week of travel, the men made it to the fields on the
outskirts of town where they camped overnight and ate some of the free
roaming cattle. In the morning a Spanish army of about 2000 infantry and
500 cavalry was organized by the Spanish Governor Don Guzman and made a
show of force in front of the Morgan. Knowing full well that these men
were untrained peasants and slaves, Morgan was unimpressed.
When Morgan’s volley of muskets decimated Guzman’s infantry, Guzman
sent his secret weapon into work. He let loose a couple hundred head of
cattle into Morgan’s direction hoping Morgan’s men would be trampled.
Instead, the Cattle just scattered in the other direction. Idiot! The
remainder of Guzman’s men either surrendered or ran into the jungle as
Morgan’s men came up over a hill and attacked their flank. In less than
six hours Morgan’s men, half starved, started to cheer and plundered
what was left of the town. Panama was torched, some say by the fleeing
Spanish.
The Spanish had known about the attack ahead of time and warned the
townspeople to flee. As a result, all of the wealthy landowners had fled
with their valuables. So the profit was much less than expected, but still
amounted to about 200,000 British Pounds in 1670, which is heck of a lot
of money today. But on the march back to the boats the men grew rebellious
as word spread that their take would be reduced to 200 coins. Morgan,
instead of trying to quell their fears hopped on his boat with his take of
the booty and headed home to Port Royal, leaving the rest of his men
stranded in Spanish territory.
When news of the capture of Panama reached Madrid, the Spanish threatened
war. Charles II wisely reacted by throwing Morgan and the Governor in the
tower until the hoopla died down. Henry was later knighted in 1674 and
then made the Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica. He died a wealthy man in
Port Royal in 1688 after possibly contracting tuberculosis.
There is something about pirates that captures people’s imaginations.
Maybe it’s the time period, the turquoise waters and palm trees, the
treasure, the rum, the ships- I don’t know. Those days are long gone
now. But the next time you are drinking that Captain and Coke down here in
Panama think about Sir Henry and the other guys, they were true pirates in
every sense of the word.
Captain
Morgan advertising
LINKS
and REFERENCE
-
Captain
Morgan official website
-
Diageo
website
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TheBar.com
- Site run by Diageo, owner of the Captain Morgan brand
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Captain
Morgan Cocktail Cans
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Dr
Rebecca Tortello, "Henry Morgan, the pirate king"
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Henry
Morgan entry at Piratesinfo.com
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Henry
Morgan entry at www.global-travel.co.uk
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Henry
Morgan entry at www.data-wales.co.uk
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Ebrosia,
Germany
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Rum
History
-
Rum
Origins
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Ministry
of Rum
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Peter's
Rum Pages Online collection of rum bottle labels
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Rum
Portal Rum Information Resource
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The
Rum Shop, U.S.A.
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The
Rum University
-
Ministry
of Rum: Rums, Rhums, Rons, Rum Book, Caribbean Gifts
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Welcome
to the Office of the Minister of Rum
-
Rumpages
is a site about Rum, The Netherlands
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The
Daily Ration, United Kingdom
-
The
Rum Portal
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Rum
Corner - Romminurkka
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Possi's
Rumpage
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Les
Meilleurs Rhums en Ligne...
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Virtual
Dominica
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Die
grosse schweizer Rum-Page
-
Rum
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Rhum
Vieux
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Musee
Du Rhum, Guadeloupe
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Musee
du Rhum, Guadeloupe
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The
Rum Story , United Kingdom
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The
Rum Story, United Kingdom
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Das
Rum-Museum, Flensburg, Germany
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Museu
da Cachaca de Lagoa do Carro, Brazil
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Museu
da Cachaca, Brazil
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Museu
da Cachaca de Minas Gerais, Brazil
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Ypioca
Museu da Cachaca Brazil
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Die
Spirituose - Ihr Portal für geistige Getränke &
-
Le
Rhum de l'Ile de la Reunion
(YOU
MUST BE 21 YEARS OF AGE TO ENTER THIS SITE, OR ABOVE THE MINIMUM AGE YOUR
GOVERNMENT REQUIRES)
UK
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