Up Spirits - The Rum Ration in the Royal Navy Quiz

Answer: The cloth his coat was made from

In 1739, Admiral Edward Vernon was appointed as the commander of a squadron of six ships assigned to the Jamaica Station. The following year, as a way of preventing increasing levels of drunkenness amongst his men, he ordered that the daily rum ration, which at the time amounted to one-half pint (284 ml) of neat rum, be diluted with water. Because neat rum did not spoil quickly, sailors took to saving their daily ration for several days to drink at once. Vernon's order was to dilute the neat rum with one quart (1100 ml) of water, and have half of the resulting mix issued to the men at midday, and the rest at the end of the working day. This had the effect of not only diluting the effect of the neat rum, making it harder to get drunk from, but also accelerating the amount of time it took to spoil, making it harder to hoard.

The diluted mix of rum and water ordered by Vernon came to be known as "grog" after the man himself, who carried the nickname "Old Grog". This nickname came from the coat that Vernon habitually wore, which was made of grogram, a type of fabric defined through its weft (the horizontal thread) being heavier than its warp (the vertical thread). Grogram itself is generally made of silk together with a coarser fabric such as wool or mohair.

Answer: Lemon juice

The myth that Admiral Vernon ordered the addition of lime juice to grog to combat scurvy stems from his original order of 1740 when, in his instructions to his captains to dilute the daily rum ration, he stated that crew members that were "good husbandmen may from the saving of their salt provisions and bread, purchase sugar and limes to make it more palatable to them." Scurvy was not an issue to the men under Vernon's command at the time; it tended to appear on long sea voyages where fresh provisions would rapidly run out or decay, while Vernon's squadron was stationed in the Caribbean with good access to fresh fruits and other foodstuffs. Additionally, medical opinion of the time believed scurvy was due to poor digestion and "internal putrefaction", and stated that the best treatment was to consume fermented or fizzy drinks, a practice that proved largely ineffective.

Despite the prevailing medical view on the treatment of scurvy, the practical experience of sailors (and naval surgeons at sea treating them) was that consuming citrus fruits was a way to guard against scurvy, although they did not at the time understand why, as Vitamin C was not identified until the 20th century. Despite this, on the advice of Dr Gilbert Blane, who had been Physician to the Fleet, and was latterly Commissioner of the Sick and Wounded Board, the Admiralty, in defiance of medical opinion, ordered a daily issue of a quarter of an ounce of lemon juice, largely sourced from Spain, which was added to the rum ration, and which at a stroke almost eliminated scurvy from the fleet. A decade later, at which point Britain was at war with Spain, lemon juice was replaced with lime juice, as limes could be easily sourced from Britain's colonial possessions in the Caribbean.

Answer: Chief Petty Officer

During the 19th century, temperance movements began to be founded in Britain, promoting the idea of temperance (which can also be defined as "moderation") or complete abstinence from consumption of alcohol. In the United Kingdom, the first temperance organisation was founded in 1829 in Glasgow, while, in response to the social problems that alcohol was seen to cause, especially in newly industrial cities, the promotion of complete abstinence, which came to be known as "teetotalism", began to rise in influence from the 1830s. Although the temperance movement in the UK was never able to gain the levels of traction on a national basis that it did in other countries, such as the United States, organisations still had enough influence to be able to make a mark on policy, to the extent that, in 1850, Parliament discussed the complete abolition of the rum ration in the Royal Navy. Although it was retained, the amount was cut - having been reduced from 284 ml to 142 ml in 1823, in 1850 it was halved again to 71 ml, with the issue of rum taking place once a day at noon. Those who elected not to take their ration were compensated to the tune of 1/2d per day, which came to be known as "grog money".

In 1881, the issue of abolition was debated again in Parliament and, although the daily ration was retain, in that year it was finally withdrawn for officers of both the wardroom (ranked from lieutenant to commander) and the gunroom (ranked as midshipman or sub-lieutenant), as well as junior ratings aged under 20. Almost forty years later, the ration was also stopped for warrant officers, the highest non-commissioned ranks in the service, leaving only those ranked as chief petty officer and below eligible. Ultimately, only those marked on the ship's books as "G" (for "grog") were eligible to receive rum, while those marked as "T" (for "temperance") received grog money, which eventually rose to 3d per day, while only those below the rank of petty officer received grog; petty officers and above were permitted their rum neat.

Answer: Sir Peter Hill-Norton

The 20th century, and in particular the two world wars, had stimulated significant advances in the technology available to the Royal Navy, with the result that, by the 1960s, with ships powered by advanced turbines, armed with guided missiles and fitted with increasingly sophisticated electronics, the provision of a daily amount of what was classed as "hard liquor" was seen as an anachronism, with increasing efforts by those in positions of authority to abolish it. In 1967, the then Second Sea Lord, Admiral Sir Peter Hill-Norton, who was also the officer in charge of personnel matters in the service, again made a proposal to abolish the daily rum ration, which culminated in a written answer by the Admiralty Board to MP Christopher Mayhew in December 1969, in which the Admiralty's official view was given that the issue of rum was no longer compatible with the efficient running of the complex machinery on modern warships.

On 28 January 1970, the "Great Rum Debate" took place in the House of Commons. Lasting for just over an hour, the decision taken by the Admiralty Board was agreed upon by the then Under-Secretary of State for the Royal Navy, David Owen, with arrangements put in place to abolish the daily tot. Admiral Hill-Norton, who had been serving for 16 months as the Commander-in-Chief of the British Far East Command, returned to take up his new appointment as First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff on 3 July 1970. Just 28 days later, on 31 July, the call "Up Spirits" was piped for the final time, with many ships giving their grog tub a "burial at sea", with some, such as HMS Minerva, giving it a twenty-one gun salute. The final Royal Navy ship to issue the tot was HMS Fife, which at the time was at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, whose grog tub was disposed of with such solemn ceremony that the crew of a passing Japanese warship manned the rails and saluted, not realising it was not a person being buried.

Answer: Pusser's Rum

Following the end of the daily ration, rum was still a requirement in the Royal Navy to be served on special occasions. As a result, although ships had disposed of their grog tubs, they still had to keep a quantity on board. The remaining stocks of the Navy's rum were purchased by Brian Cornford, a former Chief Petty Officer, who had it shipped to a secure, bonded warehouse in Gibraltar, from where he would supply wax-dated, corked demijohn containers to Royal Navy ships visiting Gibraltar. However, this was a finite supply, and was not intended for sale. As a result, in 1979 the Admiralty was approached by tech entrepreneur Charles Tobias, who had an idea of starting production of the Royal Navy's blend of rum.

Charles Tobias was born in Canada but raised in the United States. Having attended the University of Southern California and gained degrees in Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering, he then enlisted in the US Marine Corps and served as aircrew in Vietnam. Upon his return to the United States, he founded a successful tech company, which he later sold, buying a yacht and sailing the world from California to Greece. While in Gibraltar, he was gifted a flagon of Royal Navy rum, which led to his attempting to recreate it. In 1979, he came to an arrangement with the Admiralty, who turned over to Tobias the information to produce the distinctive blend. Tobias then launched his new venture as "Pusser's Rum", after the naval slang term "pusser", meaning "purser" or supply officer. As part of the arrangement with the Admiralty to market the rum (and use the Royal Navy White Ensign on its branding), Tobias agreed to donate a portion from the worldwide sales of Pusser's Rum to the Royal Navy Sailors' Fund, which continues to this day.

Answer: New Zealand

Although New Zealand established its own naval forces in 1913, these formed an integrated part of the Royal Navy until 1941, when, in recognition of the fact that the naval force operated in a largely self-sufficient manner, the New Zealand Division was transitioned into the Royal New Zealand Navy, becoming a separate naval force under the direct authority of New Zealand's government. As with many other navies, the RNZN adopted many of the traditions of the Royal Navy, including introducing the daily rum issue to its senior and junior ratings. As in the Royal Navy, senior ratings (petty officers and chief petty officers) received their rum issue neat, while junior ratings had theirs issued as grog, with the issue taking place between 11.00am and 12.00pm each day. However, the RNZN's grog was issued as one part rum to one part water, rather than the one to two that the Royal Navy issued.

By the 1980s, the RNZN was the only remaining naval service that still issued a daily tot of rum. The ever increasingly complexity of working in modern warships led to the same discussions in New Zealand as had taken place in the 1960s in the UK. The RNZN undertook a survey of its senior ratings in 1984 that indicated 64% thought that the issue of rum should continue, with a majority of those aged under 35 years of age taking this view. However, by 1989 it was found that more sailors were actually taking grog money rather than rum. As a result, in December 1989 Rear Admiral Somerford Teagle, the Chief of Naval Staff, took the decision to end the daily tot, with the last day of issue being 28 February 1990.

Answer: The longest line of a square-rigged sailing ship's rigging

In the days of sail, ships were generally fitted with a square-rig, where the sails were hung on horizontal spars ("yards"), with the outer tips of these known as yardarms. On ships of this type, ropes attached to the yardarms, known as "braces", allowed the yards to be rotated around the mast, permitting finer maneuvering than was possible simply with the wheel and rudder. The longest of these, attached to the yards on the mainmast, were thus called the "mainbraces". Repairing the mainbraces was an important repair job, as it ensured the ship could be maneuvered, particularly during battle, but this type of repair, which would often involve splicing in new hemp to repair the rope, was also extremely difficult and strenuous, and was generally undertaken only by the best able seamen on board. Because of the difficulty of the task, upon its completion the men involved would usually be rewarded with an extra tot of rum.

In the years in which steam took over from sail as the primary means of propulsion, there became less and less need for repairs to mainbraces to be undertaken, and the order to "splice the mainbrace" took on a new meaning to issue an extra tot of rum to the entire ship's company on a special occasion, such as a royal birth, the accession of a new monarch or victory in battle. After the daily tot was abolished for officers in 1881, and then warrant officers in 1918, the receipt of the order to splice the mainbrace was the only occasion that these groups could be issued with rum. Since the abolition of the tot completely, issues of rum under this order have been relatively rare - amongst other occasions, rum was issued in 1981 to celebrate the marriage of the then Prince of Wales to Lady Diana Spencer, and the following year to celebrate the birth of their eldest son, Prince William, while it was also issued on the occasions of Queen Elizabeth II's Golden, Diamond and Platinum Jubilees. Permission to issue the order to splice the mainbrace is restricted to the monarch or other members of the Royal Family, or the Admiralty Board collectively.

Answer: The Queen - God Bless Her

Although the grog tub came in a standard pattern, there were a number of different sizes, ranging from 10 gallon to 40 gallon, depending on the size of the ship or shore establishment to which it had been issued (and thus the number of men it was expected to serve). The grog tub itself would usually be made of either oak or teak, with three (for 10 gallon or some 20 gallon) or four brass bands (for 20, 30 and 40 gallon) either side of the toast given in brass letters on the front, which spelled out in two rows of text "THE QUEEN - GOD BLESS HER" (or, if the monarch was male "THE KING - GOD BLESS HIM"). Wording had been put onto grog tubs starting in the reign of Queen Victoria, generally from around the mid 1850s and the start of "continuous service", when the Royal Navy began to transition into a professional organisation. At this point, grog tubs started to become more ornate, made of good quality wood and with brass fittings made in dockyard foundries.

Initially, the wording, which was intended as a toast of thanks to the monarch who was ultimately responsible for providing the daily tot, varied, with instances of tubs being often inscribed simply "GOD SAVE THE QUEEN / KING" or "GOD BLESS THE QUEEN / KING". However, in 1910 George V came to the throne. As the second son of the then Prince of Wales (later Edward VII), he was not expected to come to the throne, and joined the Royal Navy, serving for 15 years and ultimately (on merit) commanding three different ships. It was only on the death of his elder brother in 1892 that he was forced to leave active service. As a result, unlike his father and grandmother, George V had a strong knowledge of life in the Royal Navy, and the respect in which he was held saw a change in the toast on the grog tub to the traditional "THE KING - GOD BLESS HIM", wording that was retained (with a slight change for the accession of Elizabeth II in 1952) until the abolition of the tot in 1970.

Answer: Fleet Air Arm

Although the details of how the rum ration was issued daily depended generally on how a ship's commanding officer wished it to be done, generally the process began at 11.00am when the call "Up Spirits" was piped by the boatswain's mate, which was the signal for the party responsible to preparing the rum to obtain the keys to the ship's spirit room, pump sufficient neat rum for every rating down to receive an issue into the special receptacle called a "barricoe", and then take it to a spot (often on the quarterdeck) where it could be issued. Unless they were on watch, the senior ratings mess then received their issue neat, while the remainder was mixed with fresh water in the grog tub and issued to each of the junior ratings messes prior to or just after 12.00 noon, after which the order "Hands to Dinner" was piped to call the ship's company to their midday meal. Those men on watch would receive their issue once they had completed their duty.

While this process was generally the same for the majority of the ship's company, those working as part of the Fleet Air Arm, the aviation component of the Royal Navy, tended to have a different working pattern geared to their ship's flying programme. All ships operating aircraft of one type or another would have a specific timetable when aircraft were flying and when they weren't, which generally continued through the day and, on occasion, at night. As the work revolved around ensuring the availability of aircraft, the men would not work to the same pattern as the remainder of the ship's company, and, as a result, would receive their daily tot at the end of their working day instead of before having their equivalent midday meal.

Answer: Rye whiskey

Despite fighting the British for independence, the fledgling US Navy actively elected to copy many of the traditions of the Royal Navy after its foundation, one of which was the daily issuing of spirits to its crews. A rum ration had been in place during the time of the Continental Navy between 1775 and 1785 and, upon the establishment of the new United States Navy in March 1794, Congress ordered that a ration be issued to the tune of a half-pint of distilled spirits, or, where that was not possible, a quart (two pints) of beer. This was amended in 1797 to remove the beer qualification. Again consciously copying the Royal Navy, the United States initially issued rum to its sailors. However, in 1806, the Navy Department was persuaded to change instead to rye whiskey. Because it was made from cereals, it was cheaper to produce than rum, and thus more cost effective to obtain, leading to the contracts for spirits for the Navy to go from rum distillers in New England to whiskey distillers in the west.

Beyond the change from rum to whiskey, the issue of the daily tot was largely unchanged in the US Navy. But, in 1842, it was reduced to 1/4 pint, and stopped for commissioned officers, midshipmen and men under the age of 21. Then, twenty years after this, the whiskey ration was stopped altogether by an act of Congress, with distilled spirits prohibited on American warships unless under the supervision of the medical officer for medicinal purposes. Over the following decades, the restrictions on alcohol on ships of the US Navy increased until, on 1 June 1914, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels issued an order prohibiting all alcohol on US warships. Since then, US warships have been alcohol free, with the exception of "beer days" - if a ship has been at sea for 45 continuous days, and has at least five days until a port call, then the captain may request a "beer day", when the crew is permitted to be issued with a supply (two cans per crew member) of beer. These are at the discretion of the fleet commander, and often take place in conjunction with organised cook-outs known as "Steel Beach Picnics".