Gosling’s Rum

The history of Black Seal Rum® and the Gosling family began long ago. In the spring of 1806 James Gosling, the oldest son of William Gosling, wine and spirits merchant, set out from England on the ship, Mercury, with £10,000 of merchandise, bound for America.

            

After ninety one desperate days on a becalmed sea their charter ran out, and they put in at the nearest port, St. George’s, Bermuda. Rather than pressing on for America, James opened a shop on the King’s Parade, St. George’s in December 1806.

 

In 1857, the first oak barrels of rum distillate arrived in Bermuda. After much trial and error, the distinctive Bermuda black rum destined to be Black Seal was formulated and offered for sale. The secret blend of three different rums, aged independently, was not called Black Seal at first. It was called Old Rum. In fact, up until the First World War it was only sold from the barrel, and most folks brought in their own bottles for a ‘fill up’. Eventually the black rum was sold in champagne bottles, reclaimed from the British Officer’s Mess, and the corks sealed with black sealing wax.

Pretty soon people began to ask for the rum with the “Black Seal”. Many years later the idea of the little, barrel juggling “Black Seal” was born.

A family business for over 200 years, Gosling’s is today the only company that blends and bottles in Bermuda, and is the largest exporter of a Bermuda made product.

                                          

The Dark ‘n Stormy® is Bermuda’s national drink (trade marked to Gosling’s Black Seal). This drink had its origins in a ginger beer

factory run as a subsidiary to the Royal Naval Officer’s Club. They soon discovered that a splash of the local black rum was just what the ginger beer was missing. The name was said to have originated when an old fisherman, observed that the drink was the “color of a cloud only a fool or dead man would sail under”. Probably followed by – “Barman, I’ll have another Dark ‘n Stormy!”