Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
January 8th 2007 19:25
Getting their serve of grog
"Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum" what the hell had this to do with curing scurvy in the navy?
There were many cures or supposed cures for scurvy in the British navy. It is a fact that the British Navy only lost around 15% of its men to battle wounds and the rest to disease, the most debilitating being scurvy. There were worse types of disease but scurvy was the scurge no matter where you were at sea there was a risk of contracting it.
We are taught that Cook sailed without scurvy as he copied the form of Dutch captains and fed the men on Sauerkraut. The men would not have eaten that "square head food" except that supposedly Cook forbade them to do so. "The sauerkraut is for the officers only, to help them avoid scurvy." Soon seamen were stealing the stuff to try and as stolen fruit is allways sweetest they claimed they loved it. Soon a petition was put to him that it was unfair that the men missed out and he condescended (with a smile)
It was known that when fresh foods were served scurvy was kept at bay. But on long voyages food could not be kept fresh. An accidental occurence was the initiaton of grog. First introduced by vice admiral Vernon. He cut the men's rum allowance with water, sugar and lemon or lime to avoid drunkedness. The original allowance was 1/2 a pint twice a day drunk straight down. Abscorbic acid was known as a cure for scurvy and men could not be made to take the juice of lemons to save their life. By accidentaly introducing it to their rum ration (now scornfully known as "grog") it had the right effect. kept men more sobber and scurvy at bay.
But it was not a rule that lemons should be used to dilute rum. Limes were in many places cheaper so lime juice was used and many othe citrus juices but they were not as effective in stopping scurvy. Remember that seamen were not highly regarded and their lives were not held in high esteem and people did not care all that much about their welfare. It was purely a mathematical thing to keep enough hands to sail and fight the ship.
It was many years before the true effect of lemon juice was realised. It had been proven in small experiments well before but little notice was taken.
The commercial ships of Britain followed in a lot of the ways of the navy. They had their grog allowance and the owners trying to save money definitely used lime to cut the grog. Their ships were known as "limejuicers" and hence the sailors were known as Limeys! It was some time before it became law that all grog should be diluted with only lemon juice. Of course many used diluted lemon juice to save money. owners were and still are a tightarsed breed.
Even explorers in the Antarctic fell to the survy. Scott was convinced to take lime juice instead of lemons. We can only guess what fate would have done if he had packed lemon juice?
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Comment by Ash
Australian Traveller
Flashes of memories
Did you know that if you take half a lemon and squeeze it on your elbows it gets rid of that horrible black dirty skin - smooth as a baby`s bottom!
Comment by Cibbuano
20/20 Filmsight
Science News
Hunt Famous
Orble Post of the Day
Fat Cult
Techbreak
1/2 pint of rum, twice a day? Damn, that's a lotta grog!
Comment by TomN
Boat Heaven
I don't know about getting the skin on my elbow like a babies bottom but I had lemons on my prawns last night and no scurvy this morning! Scurvy is a skin disease I believe so maybe skin and anti wrinkle????
Cheers
Comment by TomN
Boat Heaven
funny thing I used to drink rum and bitter lemon before I learnt to drink beer. Lovely refreshing drink. I still like some lemon flavour added to my rum even just plain old pub squash will do.
Cheers