Beer in the boat

[Steiger]

I always feel that a patrol goes much better with a nice big glass (or more, depending on patrol length and amount of time being depthcharged) of Guinness or Samuel Smith's. I know that in Nelson's Navy beer was rationed out at something like 1 gallon per man, per day when in home waters. To that end, was beer carried on subs of any country?

[Webster]

unless it was some type of cargo i would think not, the reason i say that is the simple space issues so you can carry one botle of whisky for celebrations or the occassional nip with the captain but smuggled items must be easy to hide and not take up much room so thats why IMO beer isnt worth the risk/reward

plus i would think "home brewed" hooch would be easier to find then beer


that said i suppose anythings possible given the right situation

[Torplexed]

I know German subs carried a few bottles of beer which could be doled out in small quantities to celebrate a victory or holiday.

Sadly, in the US Navy no as of 1914...

GENERAL ORDER NO. 99
NAVY DEPARTMENT,
Washington, D.C., June 1, 1914
CHANGE IN ARTICLE 827, NAVAL INSTRUCTIONS. On July 1, 1914, Article 827, Naval Instructions, will be annulled and in its stead the following will be substituted: "The use or introduction for drinking purposes of alcoholic liquors on board any naval vessel, or within any navy yard or station, is strictly prohibited, and commanding officers will be held directly responsible for the enforcement of this order."
JOSEPHUS DANIELS
Secretary of the Navy.

[Steiger]

Man, talk about killing the party. :\

[Torplexed]

Man, talk about killing the party. :\

That wasn't the only party he killed. He also opposed horizontal refreshments. In 1917 Josephus Daniels determined that no prostitution would be permitted within a five-mile radius of naval installations. ;)

Some believe he's responsible for the term 'cup of joe' since the Navy switched to coffee as the beverage of choice.

[Steiger]

I'm sure his decrees did much for the health of the fleet. However, if you're going to be sunk anyway, who gives a damn? Break out the booze! :woot:

[Torplexed]

However, if you're going to be sunk anyway, who gives a damn? Break out the booze! :woot:

That certainly was the philosophy in the Japanese Army. Just about every last-ditch banzai attack was fueled by a liberal dose of sake (rice wine). ;)

[Nisgeis]

If you read 'Thunder Below!' then find out all about alcohol on the US subs. Regs stated that they could carry half a case of beer per man for picnics. Fluckey had 24 cases of beer, all stacked up in the officers shower. Rum (nasty stuff) was the previous beverage and was the 'depth charge' ration, for use after depth charging to steady the nerves. Fluckey would put 4 cases of beer in the fridge, prior to an attack. Each time he forgot, he missed the ship. Each man would have a single beer with the celebration sinking cake, decorated with the ships they had sunk after each engagement, at a suitable time.

[Inner Sound]

The Royal Navy's daily grog ration was only stopped in the 70's iirc. Dont know if it was ever issued in the boats. Not sure I'd care to have my forward planesman getting creative at his station.

Nothing to stop us tho :) :DL :D :88) :zzz:

[Steiger]

getting creative at his station.


Hahaha! I lol'd, sir.

That would be one of those "hey, watch this!" famous last word situations.

Fluckey had 24 cases of beer, all stacked up in the officers shower.

Now that's a good commander. Putting the well-being of his men first!

[razark]

I don't know about beer, but I recall reading in one book about the "depth charge medicine" that would be issued to crew members. I believe it was small bottles of brandy.

One instance I remember reading about was after some crew members were working beneath the main deck to repair damage, where they would have been stuck if the boat had been attacked and needed to submerge. The captain ordered a ration of "depth charge medicine" for the men to be released from the medical supplies after they were finished.

I don't remember the specific book, I read it too long ago.

[DarkFish]

"The use or introduction for drinking purposes [...]"Bwut sir... I didn't... drwink it on pwurpose... *HIPS*:()1:

[Steiger]

^I'm sure it was just one of those rules like a lot of today's companies have in place just so they can fire someone they don't like for something small that everyone does anyway.

[Munchausen]

:hmmm: I just did a page search for "torpedo juice" and came up empty. Hard to believe nobody's mentioned it.

[Steiger]

Just looked it up on wikipedia...Holy cow that's a heck of a drink!

[Gino]

Dutch submarines in WW2 had bottles of red wine on board. The idea was that a glass of wine would increase the red blood cells. This was because apparently they found out that submariners had a decrease of hematocrit. So, every Dutch submariner received a glass of red wine every day.
Beer was also not unusual and carried on board.

Most US Navy boats only carried a bottle of whisky for "Medicinal Purposes", which was sometimes used for other uses. Fluckey was one of only a very few that carried beer on board for his crew. Actually it wasn't allowed, but hey who's gonna tell a very productive skipper to stop something.

A nice anecdote is that when the USS Cod rescued the sailors of the Dutch O19 the Americans came across the red wine (and some cases of whisky which were intended for the British subtender (HMS Maidstone))
They immediately started drinking the stuff. Some came back on board of the Cod trying to smuggle the booze on board.
According to the navigation officer of the O19 some of them were pretty drunk...

Groetjes,

[jerm138]

We never had alcohol on our boat legally. One guy I knew would bring a water bottle full of vodka on every run and treat himself every now and then. He'd be all glassed over when he came to relieve the watch. I'm sure he wasn't the only one. I didn't have the cajones to do that.

Some of the guys got to tour a sub that pulled into Pearl and it had Guinness on tap. I don't remember what country it was, or what there rules were (in port only, maybe?). I want to say England or Australia... not sure. But that was the talk of the town for weeks.

[Nisgeis]

Actually it wasn't allowed, but hey who's gonna tell a very productive skipper to stop something.

Are you sure about that? Fluckey says in Thunder Below that his by the book commanding officer said it was allowed in the regulations. :hmmm:

[G2B]

I think Ducimus has some explaining to do. Found this Pabst under the Captains Bunk :o


http://i974.photobucket.com/albums/ae228/g2banything/beer.jpg