From 1731 the British Royal Navy issued a daily rum ration to every man aboard. It was written into the Regulations and Instructions Relating to His Majesty's Service at Sea, and it lasted for two hundred and thirty-nine years.
What the ration actually was
Half a pint of rum per man per day, issued in two servings. Jamaican rum, mostly, because Jamaica was British and the supply was reliable.
From 1740 it was cut with water on the order of Admiral Edward Vernon, who had noticed what neat spirits did to a crew. Vernon wore a coat of grogram cloth, the lower deck called him Old Grog, and the watered ration took his name. That drink is still worth making.
Lime and sugar came later, and the lime mattered enormously — citrus in the daily ration did more against scurvy than any medical order of the period.
Before an action
Gun crews were issued their ration before a fight. Not to make them drunk — a drunk man cannot serve a 24-pounder, and the Navy knew it — but because running out a gun in a hot, dark, deafening gun deck is work that needs a certain willingness.
The punch the crews drank was rougher than anything served today: spirits and water, with whatever fruit, vinegar-based shrub or cream of tartar was aboard to make it palatable and keep it from spoiling.
Black Tot Day
The ration shrank over the centuries as ships became more complicated and sobriety became more valuable. It was finally abolished on 31 July 1970 — a day the fleet still calls Black Tot Day. Some crews held mock funerals and buried the tot at sea.
The United States Navy had gone dry considerably earlier, in 1914. That is its own story.
Why it matters to us
Bombarda's rums are named for the guns those crews served. The Drake, the Falconet, the Culverin, the Sovereign — the ordnance that men lived and died beside, and were given a measure of rum before facing.
Ours is blended with no added sugar, no caramel colorant and no chill filtration. The Navy's ration was not sweetened either. There was no reason to be.
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