Blurb
You thought you knew everything about the Tot, the Royal Navy’s daily rum ration, Admiral Vernon’s orders, splicing the mainbrace, and the pipe, ‘Up Spirits’. You have read the official reports and academic accounts, and you are aware of the final issue.
But what of the stories, the narratives, the verbal chronicles passed down through generations of sailors? The messdeck anecdotes, the apocryphal accounts, and the shaggy dogs?
Sippers, Gulpers, and Sandy Bottoms ventures into these lesser-sailed seas, where truth and fiction mingle in the sea mists of naval folklore, mixing humour with hardship, the mundane with the heroic, and fact with fantasy. These are the stories that fill the gaps when official history is too thin, too sad, or too dull.
At the end of each narrative, I have added a comment, an insight into the truth of each, where it stands on authenticity, where it sits within the boundaries of messdeck banter and reality, and its place in naval heritage, in preserving the greater picture of Royal Naval life, our gift, our legacy for future generations.
Pull up a bollard, grab a Tot, and read things you never knew about this remarkable spirit. A spirit that defined the Senior Service for over three hundred years.
World of Stories 