The Dram Tree
by Carolyn Ricks
Title
The Dram Tree
Artist
Carolyn Ricks
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photography
Description
For many, many years a stately cypress tree stood in the midst of the Edenton harbor. No one is entirely sure just how long the tree was there, but legend suggests it was standing long before the first English colonists set foot in the Albemarle region.
Somehow, a curious custom grew up around the tree. Whenever a ship of trade called at Edenton, it was almost obligatory for the master to place a bottle of the best Jamaican rum in a hollow place in the trunk. Whenever a ship left for foreign parts, the vessel would stop at the tree, and all hands would drink to a safe voyage. Thus it was that the old cypress became known as ''the Dram Tree.''
Ships whose crews failed to drink of the Dram Tree or, even worse, failed to place a bottle there when entering port were doomed to disaster.
Uploaded
August 4th, 2014
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