NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Suitable floating platforms for sextant sight accuracy
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2015 Jul 23, 10:42 -0400
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2015 Jul 23, 10:42 -0400
On Thu, Jul 23, 2015 at 2:06 AM, Francis Upchurch <NoReply_Upchurch@fer3.com> wrote:
Re Rum and sailors.
I think before Trafalgar, the daily ration for sailors was a gallon of beer (small beer, not very alcoholic?) + 1/2 pint rum.(which was meant to be diluted to make "grog"). It seems likely that Britannia ruled the waves while mostly drunk.
It was an either/or proposition. In home waters a gallon of small beer was the daily ration for the crew. On longer, overseas voyages, it was generally beer for the first month until supplies ran out. After that, it was other spirits such as the diluted rum/grog. In Mediterranean waters, local wine would often be substituted.
Officers would supplement the official ration with their own, often considerable stock of spirits. Fortunately they dined at 1 pm or later, after they had performed the traditional noon observations.
Don Seltzer
