[BITList] Rum

[FS]

Received this from my brother in law an ex RM Commando WWII vintage thought it might be of interest at lest to the ex RFA members
frank


>
>  Hi All,
>               Most of you are
>  too young to remember "Black
>     Tot day", but I remember how sad it was.
>  Even us Bootnecks serving on board a ship or in barracks
>  under the White Ensign used to get our daily tot. In fact it
>  was usually doled out by the ship's butcher who
>       invariably was a Royal
>  Marine.                 I
>  think the daily ration in       my
>  time was an eighth of a pint, (watered down for junior ranks
>  and neat       for Sergeants and
>  above and of course for Petty Officers and above). If
>  it       was your birthday every
>  man on the mess gave you "sippers" some would let
>       you have "gulpers" and a really
>  good friend would tell you to have
>     "see-ers-offers" in other words drain the
>  glass.  Your mates would
>     then cover you for your duties until you
>  were capable of performing them
>     again. (Senior ranks could bottle theirs
>  for special occasions of
>     course as neat rum didn't go off)
>                 Debts for
>  favours were paid       in the same
>  way, sippers/gulpers etc., but drunkenness was never a
>  problem       as far as I
>  remember.
>        I can understand the reasons
>     for its withdrawal however, as we were
>  inclined to want to sleep off the
>     effects especially when in the tropics. I
>  imagine it was a necessity in
>     the days of the Battle of the Atlantic
>  when in the North Sea in winter,
>     and as for the Russian Convoys well it
>  must have been one of the things
>     that got them through those hellish
>  times.
>      Now it only comes out of the
>     rum locker on special occasions when the
>  order "Splice the Mainbrace"
>     is given. I think maybe that might occur
>  when going in to action.
>     Incidentally the rum must have given the
>  sailors of Nelson's day the
>     courage to fight the way they did. So it
>  wasn't just issued for
>     nothing. Oh by the way "Pussers' Rum" was
>  much stronger than the       stuff
>  sold in bottles and in pubs in Britain....
>
>
>       God bless "Pussers'
>     Rum"
>  __________________________________________________________
>             What did they do with
>  the drunken sailor?
>
>
>
>
>
>    By Tom Colls
>
>  Today programme
>
>     Sailors in 1956 enjoyed their tot as a
>  'social       occasion'
>      For hundreds of years, Royal Navy seamen
>  queued up in galleys from       the
>  poles to the tropics to receive their regulation lunchtime
>  tot of rum.       But 40 years ago,
>  the tradition was ended.
>
>        On 31 July 1970, known in the navy as
>  Black Tot Day, the sun passed
>     over the yardarm for the final time and
>  free rum was retired from navy
>     life.
>
>        Black arm-bands were worn as the Queen
>  was toasted. Tots were buried at
>     sea and in one navy training camp, sailors
>  paraded a black coffin flanked
>     by drummers and a piper.
>
>        "It was a sea change. It was one hell
>  of a change," says Commander
>     David Allsop, who enjoyed the tot as a
>  junior rating after joining the
>     navy in 1955.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>           Seamen drained their
>  last ever tot of free navy rum
>       on Black Tot Day
>    "It was badly received. There was a lot of muttering
>  below the decks."
>
>        The Admiralty took away the tot
>  because they were concerned that a
>     lunchtime slug of rum would hinder
>  sailors' ability to operate
>     increasingly complex weapons systems and
>  navigational tools.
>
>        But by 1970 the rum bosun's daily
>  doling out of an eighth of a pint
>     (70ml) of rum at midday - diluted with
>  water for junior ratings, neat for
>     senior - was a reasonably gentlemanly
>  affair.
>
>        "In my era it was a social occasion,"
>  says Commander Allsop. "You paid
>     for favours quietly, you had friends come
>  round to share the tot."
>
>        "It was just the same as going to the
>  bar and having a pre-lunch drink.
>     That's all it was, at the end of the day,
>  a strong aperitif."
>
>        On the lash
>
>        Sailors from the early 18th Century
>  might have scoffed at the innocence
>     of the 1970s tot.
>
>        Beer had been the staple beverage of
>  the Royal Navy until the 17th
>     Century, used as a self-preserving
>  replacement for water, which became
>     undrinkable when kept in casks for long
>  periods.
>
>
>
>
>        RUM DICTIONARY
>
>     Nelson's Blood - Slang name for rum,
>             erroneously
>  based on the story that Nelson was preserved in rum
>             after being
>  killed at Trafalgar. He was actually preserved in
>             brandy
>            Tot - Name for the navy
>  alcohol ration            Grog
>  - Mixture of rum and water, introduced
>         to the Navy in 1740
>            Splicing the mainbrace -
>  The awarding of an
>     additional drink on a special
>  occasion
>     But as the horizons of the British Empire
>  expanded, the sheer bulk of
>     beer - the ration for which was a gallon
>  (eight pints or 4.5 litres) per
>     day per seaman - and its liability to go
>  sour in warmer climates, made it
>     impractical to take on long voyages.
>
>        Wine and spirits started to take its
>  place and when in 1655, with the
>     capture of Jamaica from Spain, the navy
>  was introduced to rum.
>
>        Staggeringly, until 1740 the daily
>  ration was half a pint of neat rum,
>     twice a day, at a time before there were
>  accurate methods for measuring
>     the alcoholic content.
>
>        Sailors would check their rum had not
>  been watered down by pouring it
>     onto gunpowder and setting light to it,
>  from where the term "proof"
>     originates.
>
>        By volume, 57.15% alcohol has been
>  calculated as the minimum required
>     for it to pass the test.
>
>        Even keel
>
>        The onboard problems caused by a
>  massive intake of incredibly strong
>     rum had to be remedied, and in 1740
>  Admiral Edward Vernon, known as Old
>     Grogram, from his preference for cloaks
>  made from a fabric of the same
>     name, issued his notorious order.
>
>        "The pernicious custom of the seamen
>  drinking their allowance of rum in
>     drams and often at once is attended with
>  many fatal consequences to their
>     morals as well as their health," it
>  states.
>
>        "Many of their lives shortened
>  thereby... besides stupefying their
>     rational qualities which makes them
>  heedlessly slaves to every brutish
>     passion."
>
>
>
>
>           Sailors are often
>  associated with a large intake of
>       alcohol      Rum was
>  henceforth mixed with water, at first at a ratio of a
>  quart       (two pints or 1.1
>  litres) of water to each half pint ration, and "grog"
>       was invented.
>
>        It is not surprising that seamen
>  through the ages had grown attached to
>     their rum ration, even though the
>  punishment for drunkenness until the
>     late 19th Century was a public flogging,
>  says naval historian Dr Pieter
>     van der Merwe.
>
>        "They lived in conditions that
>  nowadays would be considered
>     intolerable," he says. "It was the one
>  thing that made life bearable.
>
>        "You cannot imagine how tough these
>  people were. Seamen were a race
>     apart. They walked differently, they
>  talked differently, they dressed
>     differently. They were built like oxen.
>
>        "They could take punishment, and they
>  expected it. They knew if they
>     got drunk they would be flogged, and they
>  still got drunk."
>
>        It would be wrong, however, to draw
>  conclusions about naval sea
>     worthiness from the fact that for hundreds
>  of years, navy sailors imbibed
>     a huge daily dose of rum.
>
>        "You mustn't imagine that naval ships
>  were sailed by crews of drunken
>     sailors," says Dr van der Merwe, general
>  editor at the National Maritime
>     Museum.
>
>        "Everybody drowns if sailors are drunk
>  all the time."
>
>
>





-------------- next part --------------
An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed...
Name: Attached Message Part
Url: http://lists.bcn.mythic-beasts.com/pipermail/bitlist/attachments/20100803/9448bbc1/attachment.pl