"GROG MONEY"

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 247, 9 December 1940, Page 8

"GROG MONEY"

ORIGIN OF THE NAME COMMEMORATES AN ADMIRAL Most people know that grog means rum and water, but few are aware ] that the name commemorates a gallant Admiral. At the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, there flourished Admiral Edward Vernon, son of a Secretary of. Stare, who is best remembered by three . volumes of his letters _■ to the Duke of Shrewsbury which were published in 1841. Edward Vernon entered the Navy in 1701 and from that time until 1707 lie took part in many expeditions in the Mediterranean and the West Indies. He always wore/ a cloak of grog ram, a rough mixture of mohair •and silk, and was known on the forecastle (and probably on the poop) as "Old Grogram Coat" or "Old Grogram." When Vernon, in an effort to stamp out drunkenness i\i the Navy, began to mix his seamen's allowance of rum with water, [the mixture was called by tlic Admiral's nickname, soon shortened

to plain "grog."' x There was a story that, soon after the introduction of the spirits-and-water, a rating threw his tot over the Admiral in protest. The story is commemorated in verse:—The sacred robe which Vernon wore Was drenched within the same. And hence his virtues guard our shore And grog derives its name. Vernon spent 12 years in Parliament, clamQuring for war with Spain. In 1739 he declared he could capture the Spanish colonial city of. Portibello if he were given half a diO'/en ships,, He got them and he capturod Portobello. with the loss of onl3 r seven men-. Six years later, while commanding in the Channel he was so annoyed l:y intervention from Whitehall that he published part of his secret instructions and Avas struck off the Flag List. His name remains immortalised, although to-day the majority of sailors prefer "grog money" to the spirits and water.