Saturday 31st July 2021 marks the 51st anniversary of Black Tot Day. The day sailors in the Royal Navy were given their final rum ration or, for those serving aboard, the day the rum died.
By the time Black Tot Day occurred, rum had been closely associated with the Navy for over 200 years. Ships had always carried booze on board since the early incarnations of what would later become the Royal Navy – limited access to clean drinking water, and an inability to transport it safely, meant that alcohol was a much safer and longer lasting drink choice while at sea. As barrels of water were turning green and slimy through their transportation in barrels, spirits improved with time in the barrel – the wood itself adding something special to the liquid inside. This would mark the beginning of our fascination with aged spirits, knowing only in those early days that the journey itself improved the spirit within somehow. This was not the case with all drink – beer worsened with travel, and it was soon realised that higher ABV beers fared better on longer voyages (hence the ‘India Pale Ale’ being a higher strength beer to survive the journey there). For many years each ship acquired whatever alcohol it could from port to port, and how much each sailor drank was down to their individual captain who carefully administered the ration to his crew as he navigated the fine line between mutiny and motivation.
In 1731 sailors were given their first ‘official’ alcohol ration on board, decreed by the newly published Naval Code at the time (though since the first ships set sail there had always been booze on board). Crews were issued with either eight pints of beer per day, or a half pint of spirit, depending on what was available at the time. The favoured spirit of the fleet quickly became rum.
It was soon acknowledged that the amount of rum was counterproductive to a well-disciplined crew, so the rum ration was halved, then halved again to ‘1 gill’ or 142ml per day. In 1740, Admiral Edward Vernon ordered that the lower ranking officers be issued their rum watered down to ‘lessen the effects’ of the alcohol. The sailors had long called the Admiral ‘Old Grog’ due to his coat of grogram cloth, a coarse fabric made of silk combined with mohair or wool and stiffened with gum. The weakened rum abomination became known as grog, a term still commonly heard today invoking.
The rum itself was not a free provision. Sailors could choose to drink their rum or be paid the equivalent cost-price instead. The price was often so low (and only paid at three month intervals) that most sailors chose the rum. After all, on the ships, rum was a currency that could be bartered for extra food from the chef, or exchanged for a few additional hours of shore leave. Real money meant little on board the ship itself.
The recipe for Navy Rum changed over the years, and was dependent entirely on the stocks available to the Admiralty at the time. In the early years, ships would have drunk whatever they could pick up from the various ports they visited. Then from the early 1800s, a dedicated 32-wooden blending vat system was constructed in the West India Docks to make the Navy blend. While the English colonies such as Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad provided much of the rum for the Navy, during shortages rums from the Caribbean and around world would have been incorporated including Martinique, Cuba, Mauritius, and even as far as Australia. The rum was brought to London and mixed together in huge wooden vats to create one of the world’s largest and longest running rum blends, with up to four million gallons being blended at its peak. The Royal Navy, perhaps unintentionally, had become one of the pioneers of rum blending.
On 20th July, 1971, after 239 years of tradition, a vote was put to Parliament to end the issuing of rum to the fleet. Rum was seen as incompatible with the complex technology and advanced weaponry that was now in operation onboard naval vessels (the days of wooden sailing ships were long gone) there were now crews operating nuclear submarines (who were still receiving a daily rum ration). The argument was fought extensively both ways, with concerns it would impact morale, but ultimately the day had come. Three days later, the last rum ration was issued to the fleet. ‘Funerals’ were held on Naval bases and some ships to mark ‘the day the rum died’, and the 31st July 1970 became forever known as Black Tot Day.
The remaining rum blend was put into stone flagons, untouched except for Royal weddings or state occasions, such as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. At these events the rarely uttered decree to ‘Splice the Mainbrace!’ would be heard, meaning a tot of Navy rum could be served across the fleet. Eventually, the remaining flagons were sold off and the Royal Navy’s loss became Elixir Distillers’ gain, as they were able to buy these last surviving remnants of the Navy Rum blend and bottle them.
Those who want to own their very own piece of liquid Royal Navy history can find the original Navy Rum bottled as Black Tot: The Last Consignment. In addition, more modern Navy blends have been created: Black Tot: Finest Caribbean for your everyday tot, and Black Tot: Master Blender’s Reserve (available 31st July), which is a true homage to the Royal Navy’s original ‘perpetual blend’. Black Tot is available from all good specialist drinks retailers such as The Whisky Exchange and Master of Malt.
Aspects of History Issue 4 is out now.
