Aboard a Caribbean pirate sloop, meals aren't served à la française but in small groups of five or six men — a 'mess' — who share the same bowl between two watches, to the rhythm of the ship's bells. The menu depends on what's been seized in a boarding or caught: preserved provisions for ordinary days (hardtack, salt meat), grand shared dishes on prize nights, and rum that flows from morning to night. No starter-main-dessert: everything arrives at once on the barrel that serves as a table, and everyone digs in.

The king of pirate drinks: distilled from molasses in the sugar plantations of Jamaica and Barbados, cheap, strong, and storable. It's drunk neat, cut with water, or heated with spices. For Rackham, rum is everywhere — to the point of causing his downfall on the day of his capture.