The Rum Never Sets: 300 Years of Royal Navy & London Dock Rum
256 pages
David Childs
The book is available online from:
https://www.wonkpress.com/products/the-rum-never-sets
For those of us old enough to remember, as Midshipmen, being invited down a mess-deck for ‘sippers’ or even ‘gulpers’ and then wondering if we could sneak away to our cabin to sleep it off, this book is a trip down memory lane. The daily rum ration ended on 31st July 1970 three years after the introduction of the breathalyser meant that a Senior Rate, having had his lunch time ‘neaters’ and then driving home was breaking the law. Although, the Admiralty signal ending the daily issue talked about its non-compatibility with working with complex systems and machinery, they must have also been the worry about the publicity that would arise from a possible fatal traffic accident.
If, again like me, one’s interest in the daily ritual was focused solely on making sure one did not commit an error while witnessing the issue, this book is an eye-opener on how the rum reached the ship in the first place and the vast number of barrels stored at the West India Dock, which twice went up in flames creating a most spectacular blaze which is only to be expected when 4.3 million gallons of spirit gets heated up. In 1940, probably as an assault on fleet morale, the Luftwaffe destroyed one and a quarter million gallons.
The rum was shipped to the West India Dock warehouse in casks loaded in over 23 British colonies, with Jamaica despatching over one million gallons in 1780, not even closely being followed by Tobago with 4,850 with just 13 gallons being imported from Grenada. Whatever the source, its quality and proof was closely monitored to ensure as little variation as possible. Tied up with its delivery, production and storage were firms with which we are still familiar such as Lemon Hart and Lambs.
It would be difficult to think of any question about the 300-year-old history of Navy Rum that this brilliantly researched, comprehensive and well-illustrated book does not answer. Taste, colour, storage, vatting, proofing (54.5 ABV) are all explained in detail. Save one, there is just one small paragraph in this beautifully illustrated book, that deals with the abolition of slavery, there is nothing on the growing of the sugarcane and the treatment of the enslaved workforce.* For rum aficionados (those not seduced away by whiskey or gin) this would be a book to savour along with a tipple. If you know of any such, a perfect Christmas or birthday present. ‘Down the hatch’.
*BR Editor: Matt Pietrek, one of the book’s authors, notes that, at the start of the book, it is explained that “Many words have been written regarding the rich history of cane spirits…. the horrors of the Triangle Trade… Yet it’s only one part of a larger story of rum.”
