Rum: The Spirit of the Sea

The naval tradition of consuming alcohol at sea has a long history. In the beginning, this attempt to reduce some of the boredom of shipboard duty was a public-health measure. Potable water stowed on board a ship at sea for any length of time became stagnant, with algae blooming within the storage casks, so mariners quenched their thirst with beer. Its alcoholic content and hops helped control the growth of microorganisms, and a daily allowance of beer helped take sailors’ minds off shipboard difficulties. In more southerly latitudes, however, beer would spoil before the vessel reached her destination. Officers often sailed with a stash of whiskey, and it was noted that this spirit, with a higher alcoholic content, did not have a spoilage problem.

Brief History of Rum

During the 17th century, an inexpensive, plentiful, and nonperishable spirit became available for the lower ranks on board ships in the Caribbean. As European countries colonized the islands, the newcomers established sugarcane plantations. Local sugarcane could be made into molasses that when fermented and distilled yielded a 140 proof (70 percent) alcoholic beverage that became known as rum. Before long it began to be used as an economical reward for the efforts of sailors on board naval vessels sent to defend the island outposts from pirates and invasion from hostile nations.

When demand for sugar increased, sugarcane plantations spread rapidly, and the planters found themselves with more rum than they could sell locally. Because a large inventory of the spirit in Caribbean warehouses was an open invitation for trouble from pirates, plantation managers sought and found another ready market—Royal Navy pursers. Ironically, British colonies initiallly were forbidden from exporting sugarcane distillates, but the Royal Navy’s purchase of spirits as a victual was deemed permissible because it enhanced the life of the king’s sailors as well as provided a windfall for the plantation owners. In 1687 the Royal Navy officially adopted rum from British Caribbean islands as part of a crew’s daily ration. This act was the genesis of a naval tradition that has lasted almost 300 years.

With sales brisk, competition in the rum trade became fierce among the planters. Ships were dispatched to distribute rum to Royal Navy ships on posts around the world. In time, competition drove down sugar prices, as did the German discovery that sugar could be extracted from certain beets. Some West Indian plantations decided to forgo sugar production altogether or to distill rum from sugarcane juice instead of molasses, a method that was predominant among less efficient plantations mainly located in French colonies. Known today as rhum agricole, this French style of rum is still produced in the former French colony of Haiti.

The first rum distillery in what became the United States was built and operated by Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam (present-day New York). In 1667 a second distillery was built on Massachusetts’s North Shore near Salem, and by the mid-1700s, many towns from Massachusetts through the Carolinas had distilleries producing rum. Exports of the spirit grew, stimulating and maintaining the infamous Atlantic triangular slave trade: Ships traveling to the American colonies or Europe from the Caribbean carried sugar and molasses for production into rum, then took manufactured goods and rum to West Africa to trade for slaves, who they then transported to the Americas. There the slaves were sold.

From Rum to Grog

At first the Royal Navy did not regulate the distribution of alcohol on board ships, leaving the amount furnished to crewmen up to captains. But in 1731 the Admiralty codified the daily ration: “It is to be observed, that a Pint of Wine, or Half a Pint of Brandy, Rum, or Arrack, hold Proportion to a Gallon of Beer.” As to which beverage was provided, it usually was what was cheapest: wine in the Mediterranean, beer around the British Isles, and rum—the most potent of the three—in the Caribbean.

For the Royal Navy, an obvious drawback to the daily rum ration—known as a tot—was that it could result in drunken sailors (the men would sometimes save up their rations and go on a bender). Concerned about discipline breakdowns on board ship, Vice Admiral Edward Vernon, who commanded a squadron in the West Indies, issued the following order in 1740:

To Captains of the Squadron! Whereas the Pernicious Custom of the Seamen drinking their Allowance of Rum in Drams, and often at once, is attended by many fatal Effects to their Morals as well as their Health, the daily allowance of half a pint a man is to be mixed with a quart of water, to be mixed in one Scuttled Butt kept for that purpose, and to be done upon Deck, and in the presence of the Lieutenant of the Watch, who is to see that the men are not defrauded of their allowance of Rum.

The admiral’s sailors christened the diluted rum “grog” in honor of Vernon, who they’d nicknamed “Old Grog” because of the coarse grogram fabric cloak he often wore on deck. Later in the 18th century a poem, which makes reference to Vernon’s flagship, HMS Burford, made the connection between the admiral’s outerwear and the new beverage’s name:

A mighty bowl on deck he drew,

And filled it to the brink;

Such drank the Burford’s gallant crew,

And such the gods shall drink.

The sacred robe which Vernon wore

Was drenched within the same;

And hence his virtues guard our shore,

And Grog derives its name.

The ration was split into two servings a day, one distributed between 1000 and 1200 and the other between 1600 and 1800. Sometimes sailors would add sugar and lime juice to make the grog more palatable. This was a serendipitous application of preventive medicine before the discovery that vitamin C in citrus prevented scurvy. In 1831 the Royal Navy ceased issuing any alcoholic beverage to enlisted men except rum.

Although diluting the rum ration was a means of maintaining shipboard sobriety, at the order “splice the mainbrace,” extra tots were distributed as rewards for praiseworthy service or heroic acts. Naval officers often provided tots to motivate men before they engaged in battle, ostensibly to make them more courageous, and the capture of an enemy ship was always celebrated with tots for the crew. Drunkenness continued to be a problem, and in 1825 the rum ration was reduced to a quarter-pint a day. The allowance was again reduced by half in 1850 and eventually distributed only once a day, usually at dinner.

Serving the Beverage

Naval regulations necessitated the fabrication of specific grog-related liquid measures, pumps, funnels, and containers as traditions regarding its distribution were established. During the 18th and 19th centuries, Royal Navy vessels stored rum in oak barrels. Later the potent spirit was stockpiled in wickerwork-covered ceramic or porcelain jugs called demijohns.

After “up spirits” was called or piped, the duty warrant officer would unlock the spirits room. In the presence of several senior noncommissioned officers, rum would be carefully pumped from a storage container, measured, and poured into jugs for chief petty officers and petty officers. They could opt to drink their rum undiluted, a privilege of high enlisted rank. Rum for the rest of the ship’s enlisted men was then measured out and poured into a special small keg, or “rum barrico,” which was then locked shut. “Rum call” was sounded, and the barrico was carried to the “grog tub,” a large brass-hooped wooden cask decorated with the maxim “The King, God Bless Him” or “The Queen, God Bless Her.” Water in the amount of three times the rum ration was poured into the tub, the barrico was unlocked, and its contents were carefully poured into the large container and mixed with the water.

A “rum bosun” was designated to collect his messmates’ grog rations, which he carried back to them in a mess kettle or large ovoid “rum fanny.” Before drinking his tot from his personal copper, pewter, or tin cup or wooden tankard, a sailor would make sure it wasn’t undersized. For a time, a special tune, “Nancy Dawson,” was sung during the consumption, but this practice disappeared sometime during the 19th century. On orders from the captain, grog remaining in the tub was thrown overboard so that it could not supplement a daily ration.

After World War II the Royal Navy realized that consumption of rum obviously diminished the mental attentiveness needed to wage modern warfare. On 17 December 1969 the Admiralty Board concluded that “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.” Consequently, on 31 July 1970—“Black Tot Day”—the Royal Navy’s final daily rum rations were distributed, marking the end of an era in naval history. “Spice the mainbrace” can still be heard on board British Navy ships, followed by the rationing of rum, but the order only can be issued with permission from the Queen, a member of the royal family, or the Admiralty.

The navies of other English-speaking nations that rationed rum to their sailors have also abandoned the custom, the U.S. Navy in 1865, the Royal Australian Navy in 1921, the Royal Canadian Navy in 1972, and the Royal New Zealand Navy in 1990.