(Noank, CT--) An investment plan to expand the Mudhead treasury and to create a collector’s brand of rum under the club name has been approved by the Board of Managers. In a special executive session, according to Commodore Andy Stoddard, the board will spend what amounts to a third of the club’s annual budget on rum futures with the expectation that the investment could return ten fold in just five years.

“This was an opportunity we could not ignore,” says Stoddard. “A string of circumstances, connections and some good luck all came together. I believe, and the board backs me up, rum is the right place to invest our money to secure a solid future for the Mudheads.” To help offset sudden pressure on the treasury, Mudhead members are being offered $100 rum shares to secure their own bottle of this unique brand of rum. A two bottle limit per family has been established.

The event that sparked the rum futures plan occurred in January, when a cache of old bottles was discovered in the attic of a boat house along the Mystic River just north of the Maxwell Boatyard and Abbott’s Lobster. The bottles have a unique, rounded bottom that puts them in a class often called “Ship’s Bottles”. A representative from Mystic Seaport, the Museum of America and the Sea, estimates the 584 bottles packed in 29 wooden crates, were hand blown in the early 19th century. Gordan Lathropy, a noted historian of the Mystic River, suggests the bottles may have been stolen from a shipment of British goods during the war of 1812 when the British laid siege to Stonington and New London. “The bottles are pretty valuable in themselves,” according to Lathropy.

“The British were known to keep a supply of rum on board their war ships,” he says, “and actually recycled the bottles. It would not be unusual for a cache to be awaiting a new supply of rum.”

The owner of the boathouse went to neighbor Chuck Chorlton, longtime Mudhead Manager, and offered the bottles to the club with the request that they be put to good use. A kitchen cabinet meeting in February at the home of club secretary Greg Stoltz fleshed out the idea of filling the bottles with rum and selling them to the club members as a fund raising idea. After some research, it became clear that this could be more than just a novelty.

Rum futures have been around since the 18th century when distillers sold shares to barrels of rum to pay for the upfront costs of making it. The contracts are sold through CBCX, Bassin des Caraibes Commodites E’Change. After an agreed upon aging period, the rum is delivered to the shareholders. Before the delivery date, the shareholders may sell their contracts or shares to anyone. The general thought is that longer the rum ages, the higher its value.