Bermuda, 1860s: someone starts sealing rum in old champagne bottles with black wax for safer transport. Down at the docks, ginger beer’s already a favourite — sailors swear it keeps seasickness at bay. So naturally, someone pours the two together, and a sailor takes one look at the colour and jokes it’s “the colour of a cloud only a fool or a dead man would sail under.” The name stuck, and so did the drink — especially once Prohibition sent thirsty Americans island-hopping in search of a decent pour, and they carried the recipe home with them. By the 1970s the Goslings had trademarked the name & we just kept the black wax, because some things are worth holding onto.