I’ve developed a collection of pottery shards that I find along the beach. Some of them have very old fashioned patterns on them. I’m convinced they come from old shipwrecks. Maybe pirates!!! There have been at least five documented shipwrecks on the shores of this island.
I was walking along the beach last week when I came across an intact glass bottle with the words “Davis Vegetable Painkiller” embossed on it. What on earth is a vegetable painkiller!? I looked it up on the internet. It seems that from 1825 to around 1880 the Davis Pharmaceutical company made and distributed a mixture of opium and alcohol and called it a vegetable painkiller. It was classic snake oil , but I’m sure it would have stopped the pain!!! It was distributed by missionaries in the local area and my new little bottle must have been bobbing around in the ocean waves for at least 130 years.
Now I’m convinced that my pottery shards were the property of Blackbeard.
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