He gasped as the fiery liquid burned his throat. How did anyone survive drinking this vile concoction? He spat the part he'd drunk out upon the wooden floor.
The men around him were laughing. "Ye'll get used to it lad."
Jack shook his head as he stared at the bottle of amber liquid, "This tastes awful, I'm really supposed to drink it?"
"Aye," a grizzled sailor at the end of the bar stood up and moved to sit next to the young lad, his words coming slowly. "And if ye find yerself marooned, ye shall wish ye 'ad it."
Many years later sitting on the beach drinking rum, he remembered those words with a soft smile.