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Weird question: What brand of cigar did pirates smoke?

usmc03gruntusmc03grunt Posts: 1
in Cigar 101
I'm a huge fan of the pirate era. Especially the "Golden Age of Piracy" so I really want to know the answer so I can find one! I'm also new to the cigar world!
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Comments

  • New_BootsNew_Boots Posts: 2,651 ✭✭
    Well, welcome to the boards!

    I'm not real keen on pirate smokes, but stick around this place...I think you'll find it to your liking.
  • Amos_UmwhatAmos_Umwhat Posts: 8,838 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Well, they had access to all the islands in the Caribbean, but I would guess they mostly smoked whatever the former Captain of their current vessel smoked. Likely more pipes than cigars, I'd think, but cigars have been around a long time. Interesting question.
    WARNING:  The above post may contain thoughts or ideas known to the State of Caliphornia to cause seething rage, confusion, distemper, nausea, perspiration, sphincter release, or cranial implosion to persons who implicitly trust only one news source, or find themselves at either the left or right political extreme.  Proceed at your own risk.  

    "If you do not read the newspapers you're uninformed.  If you do read the newspapers, you're misinformed." --  Mark Twain
  • edelrionycedelrionyc Posts: 361 ✭✭✭
    I'm sure we won't be able to find the exact cigar blend or line that pirates smokes. We can most likely figure out what islands they might have visited and smoke tobacco from that island. I don't think a cigar blend or line of tobacco is the exact same as those days.
  • New_BootsNew_Boots Posts: 2,651 ✭✭
    OR! We could all pool our money, buy a boat...and BECOME pirates!
  • webmostwebmost Posts: 7,713 ✭✭✭✭✭
    usmc03grunt:
    I'm a huge fan of the pirate era. Especially the "Golden Age of Piracy" so I really want to know the answer so I can find one! I'm also new to the cigar world!
    Read your Esquemeling. IIRC, in the early part of his account, where he describes how the original boucaniers lived, he tells how they not only smoked meat, but planted tobacco, cured it, then hired torcedors to roll it. I'm not as familiar with Basil Ringrose, but I believe he mentions cigars as well. Of course, a lot of the cargoes they captured were tobacco leaf in bales or barrels.

    In short, they rolled their own.

    “It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)
  • webmostwebmost Posts: 7,713 ✭✭✭✭✭
    New Boots:
    OR! We could all pool our money, buy a boat...and BECOME pirates!
    Of course, a true pirate would not buy a boat; he'd steal it. I read once about a tanker takes Guinness to a bottling plant in Britain. Good place to start.

    “It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)
  • New_BootsNew_Boots Posts: 2,651 ✭✭
    webmost:
    New Boots:
    OR! We could all pool our money, buy a boat...and BECOME pirates!
    Of course, a true pirate would not buy a boat; he'd steal it. I read once about a tanker takes Guinness to a bottling plant in Britain. Good place to start.

    That does sound like a solid start!

    ***end thread-jack***
  • Lee.mcglynnLee.mcglynn Posts: 5,960 ✭✭✭✭
    CgaRRRRRRRRs
    Money can't buy taste
  • Bob_LukenBob_Luken Posts: 10,736 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Wow. That makes me wonder,...... I would have thought that pipes were more common/popular at that time but then again, when did cigars, as a finished product, become widely available as a commodity?
  • MartelMartel Posts: 3,306 ✭✭✭✭
    Man, all the cool comments are taken. Guinness piracy? Good start. Cigarrrrrrrrs! Dang it!
    Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.

    I like Oliva and Quesada (including Regius) a lot.  I will smoke anything, though.
  • Bob_LukenBob_Luken Posts: 10,736 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Lee.mcglynn:
    CgaRRRRRRRRs
    LMAO. Yes!
  • Gray4linesGray4lines Posts: 4,691 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Amos Umwhat:
    Well, they had access to all the islands in the Caribbean, but I would guess they mostly smoked whatever the former Captain of their current vessel smoked. Likely more pipes than cigars, I'd think, but cigars have been around a long time. Interesting question.
    Definitely more pipes. That's how rope tobacco came around I think. Tobacco is spun into a rope and it holds moisture very well. Can be cut off in chunks and smoked or chewed.
    LLA - Lancero Lovers of America
  • webmostwebmost Posts: 7,713 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Lee.mcglynn:
    CgaRRRRRRRRgs
    fixed it for ya
    “It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions.” —Thomas Jefferson (1808)
  • raisindotraisindot Posts: 1,294 ✭✭✭
    usmc03grunt:
    I'm a huge fan of the pirate era. Especially the "Golden Age of Piracy" so I really want to know the answer so I can find one! I'm also new to the cigar world!
    That's a great question! When the first Europeans came to the new world, tobacco was either chewed or wrapped in corn husks to create rudimentary cigars. North Americans natives used primitive pipes.

    However, the "commercialization" (i,e. "branding" of tobacco products) really didn't come about until the 19th century. By that time, the golden age of piracy was largely over. So it's unlikely that pirates ever used a particular tobacco brand; they just bought (or stole) whatever they found on the islands or on the ships they captured. Maybe some preferred Virginia tobacco over Cuban tobacco, but it's doubtful that English pirates boarding a Spanish vessel ever found boxes of banded "Columbus" cigars or tobacco pouches on board. The stuff was generally shipped out in bulk.
  • flowbeeflowbee Posts: 1,203 ✭✭✭
    New Boots:
    OR! We could all pool our money, buy a boat...and BECOME pirates!
    Relocate to Somalia! they have pirates there
  • New_BootsNew_Boots Posts: 2,651 ✭✭
    flowbee:
    New Boots:
    OR! We could all pool our money, buy a boat...and BECOME pirates!
    Relocate to Somalia! they have pirates there
    On the job training! I LIKE IT!
  • jd50aejd50ae Posts: 7,900 ✭✭✭✭✭
    "Tobacco was the usual 17th and 18th Century accompaniment to eating and drinking and could be taken by pirates in several forms : Snuff - ground and powdered tobacco flavoured with herbs or dried fruit and sniffed straight up the nose ; using tobacco leaves rolled into Spanish cigarillos - long thin cigars ; and of course shredded tobacco leaf smoked in clay pipes. Having tobacco but possessing no pipe saw seamen roll the shredded tobacco leaf in a scrap of paper in order to ‘draw the smoak’ through the paper tube - this emergency-practice later evolved into the first cigarettes. Tobacco was also chewed aboard ship to alleviate hunger-pangs and because many sailing ships had stern regulations about non-smoking on board when on duty. Pirates - though not in any way regulated by a captain as common seamen were - made themselves subject to some of these rules such as not smoking below decks ; any pirate found smoking an uncovered or un-lidded pipe below decks - or carrying an un-fastened candle-lantern there - would be subject to punishment as the danger of any uncontrolled fire aboard a ship at sea manned solely by habitual drunkards was an obvious hazard."

    http://www.sea-thieves.com/education_pages/seathieves_edu_diet-tobacco.htm
  • No_one21No_one21 Posts: 2,182 ✭✭✭
    I've been sailing on ships like this one for about 14-15 years now so I could be the captain unless someone else is certified. Then I could be 1st mate hehe but my vote is we take this one:

    http://www.easternyachts.com/grandturk/
  • New_BootsNew_Boots Posts: 2,651 ✭✭
    No_one21:
    I've been sailing on ships like this one for about 14-15 years now so I could be the captain unless someone else is certified. Then I could be 1st mate hehe but my vote is we take this one:

    http://www.easternyachts.com/grandturk/
    No_One gets my vote as captain. It was my idea though, so I get to be Admiral. IE: Eat, drink, smoke, sleep. That is my job description.
  • MartelMartel Posts: 3,306 ✭✭✭✭
    usmc03grunt:
    I'm a huge fan of the pirate era. Especially the "Golden Age of Piracy" so I really want to know the answer so I can find one! I'm also new to the cigar world!
    How about...

    Arrrrrrturo Fuente?
    Intelligence is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put it in a fruit salad.

    I like Oliva and Quesada (including Regius) a lot.  I will smoke anything, though.
  • Lee.mcglynnLee.mcglynn Posts: 5,960 ✭✭✭✭
    All answers are good but sorry guys they smoked viaje skull and bones jeez!
    Money can't buy taste
  • ckrddsmkeckrddsmke Posts: 392 ✭
    Darn and I thought their fav was "Tramp Stamps" or was it "Skull Crusher". Wonder what herbs they used?
  • honorknight7honorknight7 Posts: 523 ✭
    image image image
  • No_one21No_one21 Posts: 2,182 ✭✭✭
    New Boots:
    No_one21:
    I've been sailing on ships like this one for about 14-15 years now so I could be the captain unless someone else is certified. Then I could be 1st mate hehe but my vote is we take this one:

    http://www.easternyachts.com/grandturk/
    No_One gets my vote as captain. It was my idea though, so I get to be Admiral. IE: Eat, drink, smoke, sleep. That is my job description.
    This will be our theme song:

  • Jetmech_63Jetmech_63 Posts: 3,451 ✭✭✭
    So a pirate walks into a bar with a steering wheel shoved in his pants...
    Bartender says "hey buddy, what's with the steering wheel?"
    Pirate responds "Arrrrrrr it's driving me nuts!"

    BA dum tssss :)
  • ckrddsmkeckrddsmke Posts: 392 ✭
    honorknight7:
    image image image
    Were those salvage from the Queen Anne's Revenge?
  • New_BootsNew_Boots Posts: 2,651 ✭✭
    No_one21:
    New Boots:
    No_one21:
    I've been sailing on ships like this one for about 14-15 years now so I could be the captain unless someone else is certified. Then I could be 1st mate hehe but my vote is we take this one:

    http://www.easternyachts.com/grandturk/
    No_One gets my vote as captain. It was my idea though, so I get to be Admiral. IE: Eat, drink, smoke, sleep. That is my job description.
    This will be our theme song:

    I'm down with the theme song!

    Also, as Admiral, I assign Rain to be head wench.
  • LiquidChaos66LiquidChaos66 Posts: 3,767 ✭✭✭✭
    Martel:
    usmc03grunt:
    I'm a huge fan of the pirate era. Especially the "Golden Age of Piracy" so I really want to know the answer so I can find one! I'm also new to the cigar world!
    How about...

    Arrrrrrturo Fuente?


    I can't be the only one to acknowledge te fact that this answer is the best one so far?
    Life is like a blind fiver. You never know what you're gonna get.
  • Ken_LightKen_Light Posts: 3,537 ✭✭✭
    Really? No one suggested 5 Vegas Gold Nuggets yet? For shame!

    Or Viaje Skull and Bones?

    How about Berger and ARrrrrrgenti?

    Of course they'd light and cut them with a Xikarrrrrrr....
    ^Troll: DO NOT FEED.
  • jlmartajlmarta Posts: 7,881 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Bob Luken:
    Wow. That makes me wonder,...... I would have thought that pipes were more common/popular at that time but then again, when did cigars, as a finished product, become widely available as a commodity?


    Your post just begs for a thread-jack, Bob, so here it is..... (Lol) what is the significance of the big ol' plane photo in your signature line??
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