GROG IN THE NAVY

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 251, 11 July 1918, Page 6

GROG IN THE NAVY

_6 :— A JEALOUSLY PRESERVED RITUAL. Wo of tho Navy are; given to understand that ouir comrades of the Army also use rum as a beverage, but in a profane and heathen manner (writes Mr. H. E. Melvin in the "Daily Mail"). Stout and gallant fellows though they be (and we yield to i.one in praise of their valour), they are without form and void in their dealings with that hallowed spirit which, we know as "Kelson's Blood" or "The Bubbly." They have no ritual; rum is bandied about from hand ' to hand in the Junior Service as though it wero even (repulsive thought!) water, and in a manner calculated to make a thoughtful mariner shudder. But with us that stately ceremony of issuing the grog marks the very- pivot and turn-ing-point of tho day. Sevim bells in the forenoon watch sounds; the messes are scrubbed out; the deck is spotless and everything is made ready far dinner. Then comes a sudden bugle-call which culminates in a bright and airy flourish eloquent of joy—it is the Girog Bugle. Up ' in the issuiiig-room. stands a large vat : filled with, rum and water mixed in the i immutable proportions of one jo three. ' Round the vat are gathered the officer i and petty officer of tho day, "Jack i Dusty' (tho steward), "Jimmy Bungs" I (the cooper),,and the Sergeant of Mar- ' ines (that übiquitous each < expressing byl his aspect and bearing a '. 'profound sense of heavy responsibility. i Meanwhile from every mess a solemn- I faced sailor emerges bearing a brilliant- i ly polished mess kettle; reaching the is- ] Buing-room, he falls in according to the < number of his mess. When all are as- i sembled there .is an impressive ; brawny able seaman stirs the vat with ] lusty arm; Iho steward cocks his eye at j tho officer of the day, who nods briefly, j "Number One mess," says the steward, ( and the stout atoker on whom the iui- ] mediate hopes of No. 1 mess are centred, i steps forward. . 1 "Eight pints," steward, and e eight pints, with an extra spla6h for ] luck, are duly ladled out to tho stout ] stoker, who hastens away to make room 1 for No. 2. i Once back in his mess, he relinquishes t his precious freight to the .m<»9 piesi- i dent, who sets tho kettle before him and 1 calls up one by ono those of hie mess- 1 mates who draw their grog;, to each he l< issues the aUotted half-pint, ajid this t accomplished,'he site down.to hie. dinner s with that air of conscious rectitude e which,tells of duty done. i In the old days a preliminary cere- t mony, a kind of curtain-raiser,' known i as "Dippers and Tasters,"' used to bo enacted for the benefit of the Select' Committee appointed to supervise the day's issue. The grog having been mixed, a jug was filled from the vat and handed to the officer of the day; after tasting and approving the brew he passed it on to the senior rating present, and eo the jug- weut round until all were satisfied that the grog had been' well and truly , p mixed. ' C This quaint and pleasing custom had n its origin in a legend to the effect that i; once upon a time, in some luckless ves- li sel, the rum had been mixed with salt ii water, and was alleged to be a ;precau- a tion against a repetition of this tragedy. One black day, however, a now officer of the dny appeared on tho scene. The grog was mixed, the jug produced, and the Select Committee gathered round '' wreathed in emiles of anticipation; the steward dipped the jug and proffered it to tho officer—but ho waved it aside. "There will be no 'Dippers and Tasttors' henceforth," he said .verv distinct- h ly, "we know the rum is all right. -.For fr the future we will taste the water be- I] fore it is mixed!" And it was so. r(