They even tell us which drinks were the most popular. Most of the seventeenth century bottles are said to have contained wine, while the English bottles from the eighteenth century contained Ale or Porter. Bottles in English pubs of the period were frequently labelled with seals of molten glass on their shoulders. Pressed into the seal, words or symbols declared the bottles ownership by the hostelry. Such bottles are unknown from Nassau harbour, as there appear to have been no taverns in the colony with their own seals.
Some bottles though have seals showing their contents.
Schnapps, as well as Gin, was also frequently taken in the nineteenth century. Today the Schnapps bottles, the older Dutch Gins, the Snuff Jar and the free blown black glass' Pirate' bottles take pride of place on my Welsh dresser back in England, where they are a constant reminder of my life in the islands. I pick up one of the bottles from time to time, feeling the weight and irregularity of the thick dark glass. For a moment I am transported back in time to the island of Providence, to the wooden ships and to the pirates. I can almost hear the coarse laughter of the seamen as they upend the heavy bottles and swill down the fiery liquor.