Hang on, I’m not quite done with Captain Low just yet. Remember when I said that he understood the power of punch? I wasn’t just referring to the parties that his crew were having below the deck. I have stated that punch brought pirate crews together. But it wasn’t only for a party.
During this era, many seafaring ships took to the waters under the direction of a monarchy, which meant that there was an established set of behavioural rules that needed to be followed at sea. Surely, the crew would be held accountable when they finally did return from their voyage. This meant that although the ship was roaming far from home, it still functioned with a sense of establishment and order. On a pirate ship, that wasn’t the case.
Since these crews were so drastically varied in race, religion, and culture, there wasn’t a presupposed set of values or rules to function with. Because these vessels sailed without any authoritative body to answer to, they had to make things up as they went. And without any tradition or system to bind them together, the group was likely to fall into chaos. In fact, since no one recognized any overreaching form of government or culture, much of pirate life was indeed chaos. Captains often knew this and managed to develop a system that would ensure a bit of stability during their travels. Often referred to as the Pirate Code, this system would involve a semi-democratic set of meetings where members of the crew would develop an agreed upon set of rules that would be voted into practice and enforced by the members themselves. Once the group reached these agreements, they would pledge to abide by these guidelines. How did they make this pledge? By drinking a bowl of punch of course.
It turns out that on a pirate ship, punch was at the centre of all things civilized. It might even be safe to say that if the captain of a crew was considered a king, punch would be their queen. To be clear, I’m not suggesting that pirates didn’t drink anything else. Concoctions like Rumfustian, Bumboo, and Sangaree were all quite popular, but that magical elixir of citrus and sweet reigned supreme.
Actually, any time the crew came together to organize a rule, communicate an issue, or conduct a vote, their agreement would be sealed with a bowl of punch. If a sentence was determined there was punch, if a captain was elected, there was punch, if there was a celebration of the looting of an aristocratic port, the was punch, if the crew were tired and needed to forget about the trauma of the day… you get the point. The contents of that silver bowl were the glue that kept everyone together, kept them inspired and in good spirits. With that in mind, I wonder if this unassuming drink was even more important than the captain himself. Think I am overreaching?
Edward Low might have agreed with me. The following excerpt is an account of his crew voting for a commander and waging war against, not one monarchy, but all of them.
After this, a Counsel…was called over a large Bowl of Punch, at which it was proposed to chuse a Commander; the Election was soon over, for it fell upon Davis by a great Majority of legal Pollers, there was no Scrutiny demanded, for all acquiesced in the Choice: As soon as he was possess’d of his Command, he drew up Articles, which were signed and sworn to by himself and the rest, then he made a short Speech, the sum of which, was, a Declaration of War against the whole World.
Low wasn’t the only person who used punch this way. Drinking this mixture to swear a pact was common practice on pirate ships and continued well after Edward Low’s glory days as a captain. About fifty years after this incident, a group of men called a meeting and drew their own set of articles to be governed by. At the end of the meeting, the men signed the document and celebrated their agreement with 76 bowls of punch. But these men were not pirates. They were the founding fathers of the United States of America. In 1776 this assembly composed the Declaration of Independence and sealed the deal with that magical potion used to unify pirates decades before. And once again, sitting at the centre of a band of unified individuals pledging to change the world, was a potent, promising vat of punch. If that isn’t a sign of power, I don’t know what is.
What do you think? Do you think it’s possible that punch helped shape today’s government? Were you surprised to know the founding fathers drank so much of it? I want to know! Share your thoughts in the comments below!