As far as I'm concerned, we're sitting in the Admiral Benbow!

About this recording

Shipwrecks, smuggling, rum and an intriguing link to Treasure Island are the main themes in this interview with David Carter, whose home is the former Boathaven Inn at Broadhaven on the outskirts of Wick.

An experienced diver with a keen interest in maritime history, David has built up a website (www.hellsmouth.com) containing details of over 200 shipwrecks around Caithness waters.

Hellsmouth, a term used by sailors to describe the fearsome Pentland Firth, is also the name of David’s rum company (www.hellsmouthrum.com). Hellsmouth rum liqueurs have become so popular that he is in the process of scaling up production. The company’s logo features the legendary sea monster known as the Nuckelavee, a demon that has its origins in Norse mythology.

David outlines his theory that his house, now named The Shebeen (a reference to one of its bygone roles), was the inspiration for the Admiral Benbow inn which features prominently in Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic adventure story Treasure Island.

Stevenson spent six weeks in Wick as a 17-year-old in 1868, helping with his father’s breakwater project in the bay, taking long walks on the coast and getting to know some of the local characters. The Boathaven Inn was in operation when the young Stevenson was exploring the Wick area, and the possible Admiral Benbow connection comes through similarities such as Boathaven being a lonely inn close to a cove, with a small bridge just along the road and a hamlet nearby. (In chapter one of Treasure Island, old sailor Billy Bones, arriving at the Admiral Benbow with his mysterious sea-chest following behind in a handbarrow, remarks approvingly: “This is a handy cove, and a pleasant sittyated grog-shop.”)

David also tells the tale of John Shand, who in the 1750s smuggled rum and whisky from Orkney to Wick. Shand would land at Staxigoe with his contraband but eventually he was arrested after becoming caught up in a gun battle with the excisemen in Wick Bay.

The photos show David outside The Shebeen holding a bottle of Hellsmouth spiced rum; standing above the cove at Boathaven; and with his wife Cheryl at the Hellsmouth Rum Company stand during the Taste North 2019 food and drink festival in John O’Groats.