Man of Legend: Prince Henry Sinclair

It was 1398, almost one hundred years before Columbus first arrived in the Caribbean, that legend has Prince Henry Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, arriving on the shores of Chedabucto Bay, near Guysborough, Nova Scotia. Was he the legendary Glooscap of Mi’kmaq oral history as some claim? Did he then travel south to Oak Island to hide the lost treasures of the Knights Templars, then to Massachusetts and Rhode Island where his expedition built structures that perplex modern historians to this day?

Monuments have been built in Guysborough County to celebrate Sinclair’s little known achievement. Others scoff at the idea of Sinclair’s discovery of America.

Certainly a great yarn to spin over a bottle of Sea Fever™ Premium Rum.

But imagine the known world in 1398.  It was the time of the European Renaissance, of great intellectual and cultural advances, and changes in technology and in navigation. It was the time of Henry the Navigator, the Age of Discoveries and map making.

Previously, the world known to Europeans ended as the sun set on the western horizon. But Portuguese navigators of the time discovered the “Volta do Mar” or the prevailing winds over the North Atlantic, and in the age of sail, this made the exploration of the New World possible.

Imagine boarding a 50’ square-rigged wooden caravel with 23 other souls to head west as far as one could go, being totally at the mercy of the weather and the sea, for glory, god and gold. Their hazardous month long voyage, which now routinely takes 5 hours or so by air, required guts and determination. Many tried and didn’t make it.

To those before us who embraced the unknown and risked all, we raise our glass.

Sea Fever™ Premium Rum celebrates those determined pioneers and adventurers who share our passion for the sea and the history and traditions of those who live on the authentic seacoast. Distinct, bold and full of flavour, Sea Fever™ Rum speaks to the adventurer in all of us.

It’s never too late to take a chance, to chase a dream, to embrace the unknown…