In the Navy

Netto are selling Pussers rum at £10.99. I believe this is a favourite of our matelot chums and a bit on the strong side.

Might be just the thing to shift this damn cold/flu/lurgy whatever it is that has had hold since before Christmas. Well medicines don't do anything so why not?

Anyone ever tried it?

That's a surprise. I didn't know cats liked rum !

Quote :

For more than 300 years, before the days of Admiral Nelson, wooden ships and iron men, the sailors of Britain's Royal Navy were issued a daily ration of rum by the ship's 'Purser'. This tradition, one of the longest and un-broken in the history of the sea, carried forward from the year 1655 to August 1st 1970.

01/08/70 a black day as far as our matelot friends were concerned.

About 54.6 ABV.A few tots of that and you feel no pain

Ahhhhhh Nelsons Blood.

handler 69 wrote:

Ahhhhhh Nelsons Blood.

Got some beer once called Tapping the admiral. Allegedly the name came about due to the fact that sailors bringing Nelson's body back to England used to nick the brandy from the cask his body was preserved in? Matelots will drink anything!

This is one of the versions


http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-tap1.htm

I remember being issued Pusser's Rum while a member of BOBC Norway in winter it had to be watered down prior to issue as it was so thick, it came in a small barrel from the Navy stores,Happy days

Brian

Had it once on my first ever exercise in Jan 62...Thought it was foul at the time, but rather like it now

Had my first issue of it in Sennelager in 65. It was election time back home. We got it after making out our ballot. Never saw it again untill 1970 during the FLQ crisies. Some one thought it was a good idea to issue out to the lads on the street playing silly buggers. We even had a former London copper now an Ottawa copper lining up for it.

Now you are all in my 'backyard'. I had my daily 'tot' of Rum from 1951 until the day it stopped being issued.
Junior rates, (ie ranks up to Corporal , (in the Army), had their 'tot' diluted, two parts water to one of rum. It was then called 'grog', after the Admiral, can't remember his name off hand, who decided that neat rum, which could be stored, should be made so that after a short while it became almost undrinkable, which meant that it couldn't be saved and drunk at some other time. Senior rates (Sgt. upwards) had neat rum.
I think that the main reason for it being abolished was because in the afternoons, after imbibing, the work rate dropped significantly.
The day it had it's last issue was treated as a funeral in the RN. We gave the tot a ceremonial burial at sea. Some of the old 'salts' even shed a tear. It was a black day for us.
Another tradition sadly lost.

So they got a tot in the morning (forenoon?)? You will have to explain this a bit more because I thought it was an after work thing or on the odd occasion of a great victory or something when some geezer said "splice the mainbrace".

That mainbrace feller had it rough though!

I remember an old mate of mine telling me about "sippers".Perhaps granny can shed some light on this?

As far as my knowledge of 'blue types' go, if a mucker does you a favour you get a 'sip' of his rum ration, if its a big favour you get a 'gulper' ..
On the trooper Devonshire enroute to Korea we had a replacement naval draft for the HMS Mounts Bay, normally squaddies and Jack Tar would belt the hell out one another, but we were shipmates at the time. I was on Ships Police and every morning at 11 am the call over the ships tannoy would be, 'Navy personnel Up Spirits' whereupon all the Jolly Jacks and anyone who could scrounge an item of Navy gear would line up for their tot.
This was strictly monitored by the Officer of the Day (RN) and the Buffer, every tot was marked off in a ledger and names taken .. how the hell they ever squared away the difference between the number of guy's on the ledger and the actual number of tot's dispensed sure has me beat.
We also used to get a rum issue when we were on extended schemes (2 weeks plus) in BAOR in the 50's.

Len (Ciphers)

Memory is going a bit but I am sure I can remember a barrack room lawyer successfully demanding a rum ration because the temperature fell below a certain degree when we were on exercise?

Am I correct or is this one of the urban myths?

I only saw an actual rum issue once. As Cyphers mentioned, this was in '59.
We were on the usual 6-week firing camp. The guns had been firing for hours in freezing winter rain and our "Q" set up a marquee, fitted out with clothes drying lines and four Hydra burners, ready for when they came out of action.
The rum came out of an old stoneware bottle and had to be diluted. Only the "Gun numbers" got it though, miserable buggers !

In Londonderry, Fort George, we were living on HMS Rame Head for a while. The ship was still manned by the Royal Navy and we found ourselves invited to various PO's mess functions.
The Matelots tried to educate us with things Naval, like Uckers, Killicks, Jimmy the One, piping aboard a new Diver, the various measures of grog, but it all went over our Pongo heads.

I'm not sure "urban myth" describes the various stuff that's bought up on this website, teabag but one myth about the issue rum was that the Gurkhas used to drink it undiluted. Nobody doubted that one for a minute !

There were two occaisons that I remember issue rum being drunk. The first in Brunei with the 1/2 GR. In 1975/6 I was with REME Tech Svs Hong Kong and we were in Brunei to carry out the annual PRE of the units there.At the end of each working day we would play basketball against one of the unit teams, after which we would sit around the court and a large coke bottle would be produced full of undiluted issue rum which would be passed round for sippers, this was then followed by an excellent curry - happy days. The second time was in Jan 1984 when I was OC MRG 7A, 7 Armd Wksp, and we were on Ex at Rheinsehlen, and it was cold enough to freeze the proverbial, I sent a message back to the QM saying I believed it to be cold enough to warrant an issue of Rum never expecting it to be made. The QM cleared it with the CO who authorised the issue to the delight of all the lads, the rum together with a few beers made for a good Coy smoker.

Bob

When I was stationed on HMS Ariel at Worthy Down, I well remember the daily announcement which came over the tannoy for the matelots to assemble in the NAAFI TV room for grog. They also had a regular issue of duty-free fags, and, every evening, they played 'Pipes down'. We poor army bods got bugger-all.
The food was superb. No cheap rubbish, and there was a notice in the galley, "Take as much as you want, but eat what you take". I was sorry to leave there.

When I served on Honest John we had one Parka between six of us!"



Oh, and a Blue Flame heater in the Cab for the Driver and the No 1.

I've had Pussers rum once, bloody hell it was strong. Any one remember the brand of rum the Army had?

Shelldrake wrote:

When I served on Honest John we had one Parka between six of us!"



Oh, and a Blue Flame heater in the Cab for the Driver and the No 1.

If I remember correctly from my Honest John days (1 SSM Bty RCA) we were given a 15 minute life span after firing our missile. So no need for extra parkas I guess.

The 'Tot'.....
Rum Bosun...the guy who every day at 1200, attended the issuing of the grog for his particular Mess(the group of men living in a small space)
Rum Fanny....the small bucket like utensil for carrying the rum back to the messdeck.
Tot time.....when the members of the mess scrambled down to their messdeck to get their ration.
Sippers.....the Rum Bosun would be allowed to have a sip of your tot as he gave it to you. They would also be given to a mate or someone doing you a favour.
Gulpers....for a even bigger favour.
Bottoms up....the only way to drink your tot was straight down in one go.

The Victualling storeman knew how many men were 'G' (ie over 18 and eligible to have his tot. 'T', (temperence) the men who prefered to collect 3d per day insted of their tot. and lastly UA...those lads under age.

There was one other category...those 'under stoppage'. The men under punishment or CDA(caught disease ashore).

Two,little dits to finish with. Took a crowd of you 'pongo's' on a cruise to Borneo. As you were victualled on board you were eligible for your tot the same as Jack. One of your messes on the second day were asked to come and collect that days issue. The reply came back..'it's ok we still have some of yesterdays left'. The rush down to their mess by Jack was like a stampede, as they helped the soldiers with their issue.

One Christmas day in Hong Kong I invited a Sergeant into the mess at lunchtime. I said to him, very graciously I thought, to have a wet(taste) of my neat tot. He said 'cheers' and knocked it back. He nearly choked, once because of the rum, then because my fingers were around his throat. Never trust A 'PONGO' with your tot. I never did again.

'Splice the mainbrace'. The odd occasion when HM or some other dignitary ordered that a extra tot be issued. This was given after work ended for the day. Under stressful conditions it may be given. ie, when in 1953 we were removing bodies from the ruins of Zante after the earthquake. It dulled the senses somewhat.

Hardrations wrote:

Shelldrake wrote:

When I served on Honest John we had one Parka between six of us!"



Oh, and a Blue Flame heater in the Cab for the Driver and the No 1.

If I remember correctly from my Honest John days (1 SSM Bty RCA) we were give a 15 minute life span after firing our missile. So no need for extra parkas I guess.

Hardrations, I wasn't too worried about events after firing, it was driving round Munsterlager tied to the back of the Launcher that made my teeth rattle. They told us we were "Shoot and Scoot", no mention of a 15 min life expectancy. Now that I think about it, the Rockets were treated better than we were, they were fitted with electric blankets!!

[quote="Shelldrake"]

Hardrations wrote:

Shelldrake wrote:

When I served on Honest John we had one Parka between six of us!"



Oh, and a Blue Flame heater in the Cab for the Driver and the No 1.

If I remember correctly from my Honest John days (1 SSM Bty RCA) we were give a 15 minute life span after firing our missile. So no need for extra parkas I guess.

Hardrations, I wasn't too worried about events after firing, it was driving round Munsterlager tied to the back of the Launcher that made my teeth rattle. They told us we were "Shoot and Scoot", no mention of a 15 min life expectancy. Now that I think about it, the Rockets were treated better than we were, they were fitted with electric blankets!![/quote]

You noticed that eh... I did do, but then I was RC Sigs attached so had a heated radio van to hide in.

Hardrations, were you in charge of the BID 150?

Quote :

BID 150

Now then Shelldrake...What were the RA doing with BIDs..I thought that was R Sigs only