It’s 1806 and James Gosling, the oldest son of William Gosling–wines and spirits merchant–left Gravesend, Kent, England with sights on America. As fortune would have it, he never made it there, as destiny directed him to Bermuda instead. After ninety-one days on the ship Mercury, languishing on becalmed seas, their charter ran out and they pulled into the nearest port, St. George’s, Bermuda.