Black Tot Day (31 July 1970) was the last day on which the Royal Navy issued sailors with a daily rum ration (the daily tot).
Black Tot Day (31 July 1970) was the last day on which the Royal Navy issued sailors with a daily rum ration (the daily tot).
In the 17th century, the daily drink ration for English sailors was a gallon of beer (about four litres), although frequently small beer was used with an alcohol content below 1%. [1] Due to the difficulty in storing the large quantities of liquid that this required, in 1655 a half pint (284 ml) of rum was made equivalent and became preferred to beer. 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 and ordered to be mixed with water in a 4:1 water to rum ratio and split into two servings per day. [2]
In the 19th century, there was a change in the attitude towards alcohol due to continued discipline problems in the navy. 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. In 1850, the Admiralty's Grog Committee, convened to look into the problems associated with the rum ration, recommended that it be eliminated completely. However, rather than ending it the navy further halved it to one-eighth of an imperial pint (71 ml) per day, eliminating the evening serving of the ration. [3] This led to the ending of the ration for officers in 1881 and warrant officers in 1918.[ citation needed ]
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 and systems on the correct functioning of which people's lives may depend". This led to a debate in the House of Commons on the evening of 28 January 1970, now referred to as the "Great Rum Debate", started by James Wellbeloved, MP for Erith and Crayford, who believed that the ration should not be removed. The debate lasted an hour and 15 minutes and closed at 10:29 p.m. with a decision that the rum ration was no longer appropriate. [4]
31 July 1970 was the final day of the rum ration [5] and it was poured as usual at 6 bells in the forenoon watch (11am) after the pipe of "up spirits". Some sailors wore black armbands, tots were "buried at sea" and in one navy training camp, HMS Collingwood, the Royal Naval Electrical College at Fareham in Hampshire, there was a mock funeral procession complete with black coffin and accompanying drummers and piper. [6] The move was not popular with the ratings despite an extra can of beer being added to the daily rations in compensation. [7]
The Portsmouth General Post Office issued a special cancellation reading "Last Issue of Rum to the Royal Navy 31 July 1970". [8] The cancellation appeared on a philatelic cover with reading "Last Day of Issue", a play of words on they typical first day of issue postal covers. [9]
Black Tot Day was subsequently followed in two other Commonwealth navies (the Royal Australian Navy having already discontinued the rum ration, in 1921):
James Lind was a Scottish physician. He was a pioneer of naval hygiene in the Royal Navy. By conducting one of the first ever clinical trials, he developed the theory that citrus fruits cured scurvy.
Grog is a term used for a variety of alcoholic beverages.
The daiquiri is a cocktail whose main ingredients are rum, citrus juice, and sugar or other sweetener.
Admiral Edward Vernon was a Royal Navy officer and politician. He had a long and distinguished career, rising to the rank of admiral after 46 years service. As a vice admiral during the War of Jenkins' Ear, in 1739 he was responsible for the capture of Portobelo, Panama, seen as expunging the failure of Admiral Hosier there in a previous conflict. However, his amphibious operation against the Spanish port of Cartagena de Indias was a disastrous defeat. Vernon also served as a Member of Parliament (MP) on three occasions and was outspoken on naval matters in Parliament, making him a controversial figure.
Beer Day is the term applied to an event where a United States Navy or Military Sealift Command vessel's personnel are issued, and authorized to consume, beer.
Lamb's Navy Rum is a sugar-cane based Caribbean rum popular in the UK and Canada.
The Act to Provide a Naval Armament, also known as the Naval Act of 1794, or simply, the Naval Act, was passed by the 3rd United States Congress on March 27, 1794, and signed into law by President George Washington. The act authorized the construction of six frigates at a total cost of $688,888.82. These ships were the first ships of what eventually became the present-day United States Navy.
Pusser's Rum is a brand name of rum produced by Pusser's Rum Ltd., based in the British Virgin Islands. Nine years after the Royal Navy discontinued the daily rum ration in 1970, the company was founded to produce the rum from the original Royal Navy recipe, using a blend of five West Indian rums.
Provisioning for sea was crucial in the 19th century due to the lack of modern conveniences such as refrigeration, freeze-drying and canning. Most foodstuffs and liquids such as spirits, molasses, vinegar, and water, were shipped in casks, the balance in wooden crates and other suitable packing materials.
Alfred James Wellbeloved was a British politician who was the MP for Erith and Crayford from 1965 to 1983. He was elected as a member of the Labour Party, but defected to the Social Democratic Party after its formation in 1981.
"Splice the mainbrace" is an order given aboard naval vessels to issue the crew with an alcoholic drink. Originally an order for one of the most difficult emergency repair jobs aboard a sailing ship, it became a euphemism for authorized celebratory drinking afterward, and then the name of an order to grant the crew an extra ration of rum or grog.
The Sick and Hurt Commissioners were responsible for medical services in the Royal Navy. They were a separate body to the Navy Board, supplying surgeons to naval ships, providing them with medicines and equipment, and running shore and ship hospitals; they were also responsible for prisoners of war.
The Commissioners for the Victualling of the Navy, often called the Victualling Commissioners or Victualling Board, was the body responsible under the Navy Board for victualling ships of the British Royal Navy. It oversaw the vast operation of providing naval personnel with enough food, drink and supplies to keep them fighting fit, sometimes for months at a time, in whatever part of the globe they might be stationed. It existed from 1683 until 1832 when its function was first replaced by the Department of the Comptroller of Victualling and Transport Services until 1869 then that office was also abolished and replaced by the Victualling Department.
Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is often aged in barrels of oak. While strongly associated with the Caribbean to this day due to its Barbadian origin, rum is nowadays produced in nearly every major sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Philippines, where Tanduay Distillers, the largest producer of rum worldwide, has its headquarters.
Admiral Sir Frank Roddam Twiss, was a senior Royal Navy officer who served as Second Sea Lord and Chief of Naval Personnel from 1967 to 1970. He went on to serve as Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod from 1970 to 1978.
Tot, ToT or TOT may refer to:
The rum ration was a daily amount of rum given to sailors on Royal Navy ships. It was abolished in 1970 after concerns that the intake of strong alcohol would lead to unsteady hands when working machinery.
Dame Agnes Elizabeth Weston, GBE was an English philanthropist noted for her work with the Royal Navy. For over twenty years, she lived and worked among the sailors of the Royal Navy. The result of her powerful influence is evidenced in the widespread reform which took place in the habits of hundreds of men to whom her name was a talisman for good. In her day, one man in six in the navy was a total abstainer. Weston's work included her monthly letters to sailors, Ashore and Afloat, which she edited, and the "Sailors' Rests", which she established in Portsmouth. She was the first woman given a full ceremonial Royal Navy funeral.
"All For Me Grog" is a traditional folk song, also known as Good Brown Ale and Tobacco, that was originally popular with sailors and later adopted by folk music performers and pub singers.. It was collected by George Gardiner in 1906 under the title "The Nobby Hat". James Madison Carpenter collected a version in c 1928 as "All for the Grog". In 1961 A. L. Lloyd and Alf Edwards recorded the song on an E.P. by Topic Records.
HM Victualling Yard, Deptford was a Royal Navy Victualling Yard established alongside Deptford Royal Dockyard on the River Thames. There was victualling activity on the site for the best part of 300 years from the mid-17th century through to the early 1960s.
