Black Dead Day
The Black Tot Day was 31 July 1970, in the last day on which officially Rumrationen to seamen of the British Royal Navy were issued. This ended a 315 year long tradition. The term "dead" referred to the daily rum ration.
Celebrations on July 31, 1970
On British warships around the world, seafarers wore black bracelets as a mourning ribbon and took part in funeral ceremonies. The celebrations on the HMS Fife , a destroyer that was in the port of Pearl Harbor at the time, were particularly lavish . Of all the ships in the Royal Navy, it was the closest to the international date line , so this was the last time members of the Royal Navy were given rum as part of their ration. The crew gathered on deck, drank their rations and then threw the glasses and finally the rum barrel overboard. To this end, 21 gun salutes were fired. Representatives of the Hawaiian press in attendance reported that a bagpiper subsequently sang mourning songs.
On the occasion of Black Tot Day, the Post Office of the Portsmouth Marine Port issued a special postmark “Last Issue of Rum to the Royal Navy 31 July 1970”.
history
Since the 17th century, seafarers in the Royal Navy had been entitled to a gallon (then just under four liters) of beer a day. Beer lasted longer than drinking water, but it also had a limited shelf life. On longer trips and in warmer climates, wine and brandy were therefore used as part of the on-board catering. After the British conquered Jamaica in 1655, brandy was increasingly replaced by rum, which was cheaper and easier to obtain and even improved in quality when it was stored in wooden barrels on board. In addition, the plantation owners of the British Caribbean colonies in Great Britain advocated the use of rum instead of other, mostly imported, spirits. In 1779, the British Royal Navy was officially instructed to replace the brandy (mainly from France) on board British ships with Caribbean rum.
Rum has been part of the official on-board catering since 1731. Half a pint (about a quarter of a liter) of rum, divided into two editions a day, was the equivalent of a daily gallon of beer. Since such an amount of high-proof alcohol led to discipline problems, the British Admiral Edward Vernon gave his squadron stationed in the Caribbean on August 21, 1740 the order to only distribute the rum diluted with water, one part rum being four parts water. This was to ensure that the sailors did not drink their ration all at once and did their duty in a drunken state. Vernon's nickname among sailors, "Old Grog ", is said to have given the mixture of rum and water their name. In 1756 the daily distribution of rum diluted with water was included in the British Naval Code. The abstinence movement , which gained in importance in the course of the 19th century , ensured that the rum rations became increasingly smaller. In 1824 the ration was reduced by half; the members of the navy were compensated for this with larger allotments of tobacco, tea and meat. From 1848 the crew members could choose between rum and tea with sugar. As early as 1850, a commission recommended by the Admiralty to abolish rumration; instead the ration was halved again and only given once a day. To compensate, the wages were increased. In addition, the men were given the opportunity to forego the rum ration entirely and instead receive “grog money”. Since then, the daily rum ration has consisted of 71 ml of 54 percent rum. In 1881 the rum ration for officers, in 1918 for warrant officers ( deck officers ) was completely abolished and only given to non-commissioned officers and crew ranks who had to be at least 20 years old.
By 1950 only about a third of the British navy received the daily rum ration. The work on a warship had become increasingly complex, the consumption of alcohol was less and less suitable for the demanding operation of modern weapon systems. For example, a British newspaper pointed out that members of the Navy are actually not even allowed to drive a car after enjoying their daily rum ration. Therefore, the British Admiralty decided in December 1969 to stop issuing rum. As a result, the House of Commons James Wellbeloved initiated on January 28, 1970 in the British House of Commons a debate with the aim of reversing the decision. The places quite humorous debate, was made in the ample use of nautical terminology (including threatened the Speaker , disturbing deputies "to the yardarm to hang"), and some deputies gave memories of their naval service for the best, went as Great Rum Debate in the history of parliament. David Owen , then Secretary of State for the Navy, defended the move, pointing out that the £ 2.7 million saved would be transferred to the Sailor's Fund , which subsidized the Navy's leisure activities, and to compensate for the lost ration Sale of spirits in the sergeant's mess would be allowed. In the end, the House of Commons approved the resolution.
In the Royal Canadian Navy , "Black Dead Day" was on March 31, 1972, in the Royal New Zealand Navy on February 28, 1990. The Royal Australian Navy had stopped issuing rum as early as 1921, the US Navy on September 1, 1862.
literature
- Wayne Curtis: And a Bottle of Rum: A History of the New World in Ten Cocktails . printed: Broadway Books, New York 2006, ISBN 0-307-51285-1 / E-Book: 1st edition, Crown Publishers, New York 2006, ISBN 1-4000-5167-3 .
- James Pack: Nelson's Blood: The Story of Naval Rum. Naval Institute Press, 1982.
Web links
- Tom Colls: What did they do with the drunken sailor? BBC website, July 30, 2010, accessed May 28, 2018
- Grog (Collection of official regulations on the subject on private website, accessed on May 28, 2018)
- Ruth Rach: Rumration for sailors - The end of the "Daily Tot" DLF - Calendar sheet from July 31, 2020
Single receipts
- ↑ a b c d e W. Curtis: And a Bottle of Rum. New York 2006, Chapter: Grog .
- ↑ Illustration on gbcovercollector.co.uk
- ↑ a b c d RNZN and the Rum Issue . National Museum of the Royal New Zealand Navy website , accessed May 28, 2018
- ↑ Men of the Royal Navy to be allowed Extra Rations of Tea and Sugar in lieu of the Tot , accessed May 28, 2018.
- ^ W. Curtis: And a Bottle of Rum. New York 2006, Chapter: Grog , paragraph 71.
- ^ Minutes of the debate in the House of Commons
- ^ Grog , accessed May 28, 2018.