On July 31, 1970, British
sailors lined up to receive their final rum ration. “Mock funerals were
staged, “ writes Wayne Curtis for The Daily Beast.
Sailors wore black armbands. On one ship, imbibers threw their empty
glasses–and the barrel–into the harbor.
For a very long time, the daily rum
ration was an essential part of life in the Royal Navy. But by the time Black
Tot Day came around, Curtis writes, there weren’t many in the Navy who still
took advantage of the privilege they still technically had. The Navy was no
longer a body of men whose rations regularly went rotten (or at least tasted
bad). It was a professionalized body of people who had more to do with nuclear
technology and electronics than they did with cannonballs and cutlasses–and
really, really needed to be sober.
The Admiralty Board, which oversees
the Navy, wrote:
The rum issue is no longer
compatible with the high standards of efficiency required now that the
individual's tasks in ships are concerned with complex, and often delicate,
machinery and systems on the correct functioning of which people's lives may
depend.
 |
| diorama of the traditional mixing the daily tot |
But the rum ration was such an
important part of naval tradition that it prompted a lengthy debate in the
House of Commons, writes Georgie Evans for The Telegraph.
One Member of Parliament argued that "in fact the rum enabled the sailors
'to face the coming action with greater strength and determination,'"
Evans writes. Detractors pointed out that the "daily tot" was enough
rum to raise a sailor's blood alcohol levels above the legal limit for
operating a motor vehicle. They eventually won out.
Here are some of the reasons the
daily alcohol ration was so important for so long:
Most food didn’t stay good for very
long
Although the sailors of the 1700s
and 1800s Royal Navy ate better than many accounts would have you believe, the
food that lasted before refrigeration was still at best bland and at worst sort
of rotten. “Records show that 18th- and 19th- century British sailors enjoyed a
high-calorie, protein-packed diet superior to those of most working-class
landlubbers,” writes Jennie Cohen for History.com.
For all that, writes Curtis, what
they ate didn’t taste amazing. “Water in the casks would often develop algae
and taste putrid and sour,” he writes. Beer, which the Navy served before
switching to rum, didn’t last when it was hot and humid.
Spirits like rum or brandy (which
the sailors were served for a time) retained their good taste and didn’t spoil,
so they might be the only tasty thing sailors got in a day.
Scurvy
A big reason that the Royal Navy
encouraged the rum ration was related to scurvy–an ailment that was common to
sailors, who didn’t get much fresh produce that contained Vitamin C. Don’t get
confused, though: Rum doesn’t naturally contain Vitamin C in any meaningful
quantity. However, it goes well with lime juice, which ships carried and gave
out to sailors daily.
In 1740, concerned by the
drunkenness of sailors who received half a pint of rum per day, Admiral Sir
Edward Vernon declared that the rum should be mixed with water, writes Harry Sword for Vice. To that mix
was added the daily dose of lime and some sugar–although the connection between
citrus and scurvy wasn’t formalized for more than 50 years.
Being a sailor was tedious–when it
wasn’t terrifying
“No man will be a sailor who has
contrivance enough to get himself into a jail; for being in a ship is being in
a jail, with the chance of being drowned,” British humorist Samuel Johnson wrote in the latter half of the 1700s.
Like many funny people, Johnson had
a talent for overstatement, but it was true that sailing was hard work. At sea
for up to months at a time, doing backbreaking work in a highly disciplined
environment where punishments like flogging could be meted out, sailing was no
day at the beach. “There was no system of imprisonment, or financial penalty,” writes Andrew Lambert for BBC, “although the rum
ration could be stopped.” At the same time, Britain spent much of the
1700s and 1800s at war, where chance of injury and death was relatively high.
The demands of such a life helped to
make the rum ration “a vital part of the fabric of the Royal Navy–rationed, used
as a currency, and a veritable way of life,” Sword writes.
~~~~~~~
So, there will be no rum or any other liquor served on HMS Queen Elizabeth - probably a good thing!
Until next time, then,
Fair Winds
Old Salt
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