Notas del episodio
Sailors once drank eight pints of beer a day because water spoiled in wooden casks. After England took Jamaica in 1655, rum gradually replaced beer, and each man got half a pint of 95.5 proof navy spirit daily, with predictable drunkenness, illness, and discipline problems. In 1740 Vice Admiral Edward Vernon ordered the rum mixed four parts water to one and served in two halves, before noon and after the workday. Watered rum spoiled quickly, which killed the practice of hoarding rations for a binge and devalued rum as shipboard currency. Sailors named the drink after Vernon's nickname, Old Grog, from his stiff grogram cloth coat, and the procedure entered Royal Navy regulations in 1756. A competing theory credits coopers called groggers who rinsed empty rum barrels with boiling water.
The episode busts the myth that Vernon added citrus to cure scurvy: his order let thrifty sailors buy sugar and limes to make the drink palatable. It follows the daily ritual of up spirits at 11 a.m., Royal Marines guarding the tub, and leftovers poured into the scuppers, then the drink's spread. The U.S. Navy swapped in rye whiskey and ended the ration on September 1, 1862. Britain held on until the Great Rum Debate of January 28, 1970 and Black Tot Day on July 31, 1970.
- Sailors guilty of drunkenness were punished with six water grog.
- American sailors called Navy Secretary Robert Smith's whiskey version Bob Smith.
- Ship owners earned a 10 percent insurance premium return for voyages completed without crews drinking spirits.
- Modern U.S. military dining ins serve a punitive grog from a toilet bowl, with a nonalcoholic version made with hot sauce and mayonnaise.
- In Australia grog means any alcohol, in Sweden a simple two ingredient highball, and in France, Belgium, and the Netherlands a hot tea, lemon, honey, and rum remedy.