THE LAST TOT OF RUM!
31st of July 2020 marks 50 years since Black Tot Day- the last day on which Britain’s Royal Navy issued sailors with a daily rum ration (or the daily ‘tot’).
In the 17th century, the daily booze ration for English sailors was a gallon of beer (about four litres), although frequently ‘small beer’ was used with an alcohol content below 1%. Due to the difficulty in storing such vast quantities of beer, in 1655 a half pint (284 ml) of rum became the bevy of choice. Over time, drunkenness on board naval vessels increasingly became a problem and the ration was formalised in naval regulations by Admiral Edward Vernon in 1740. He ordered the tot to be diluted with water in a 4:1 water to rum ratio and split into two servings per day.
In 1824 the size of the tot was halved to one-quarter of an imperial pint (142 ml) in an effort to improve the situation. This was whittled down even further in the 1850s under advice from the Admiralty's Grog Committee.
On 17 December 1969 the Admiralty Board issued a written answer to a question from the MP for Woolwich East, Christopher Mayhew, saying "The Admiralty Board concludes 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….’ This ignited a debate in the House of Commons on the evening of 28 January 1970, now dubbed 'Great Rum Debate', leading to the decision that the rum ration was no longer appropriate.
31 July 1970 was the final day of the rum ration. Some sailors wore black armbands, tots were 'committed to the deep’ and in one navy training camp, there was a mock funeral procession complete with black coffin.
Black Tot Day was subsequently followed in two other Commonwealth navies (the Royal Australian Navy had already discontinued the rum ration, in 1921)
*Thanks to our wonderful sponsor, Jon 'Kangaroo Island Spirits' Lark, for alerting us to this momentous anniversary.
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27 ноя 2021
