Jack Sparrow: (Wakes up and sees Elizabeth burning the rum): "No! Not good! Stop! Not good! What are you doing? You burned all the food, the shade... the rum!"
Elizabeth: "Yes, the rum is gone."
Jack Sparrow: "Why is the rum gone?"
Elizabeth: "One - because it is a 'vile' drink that turns even the most respectable men into complete scoundrels. Two - that signal is over a thousand feet high. The entire royal navy is out looking for me, do you think there is even the slightest chance they wont see it?"
Jack Sparrow: "BUT WHY IS THE RUM GONE?!"
Tradition suggests that rum first originated on the island of Barbados. Regardless of its initial source, early Caribbean rums were not known for high quality.
The association of rum with the British Royal Navy began in 1655 when the British fleet captured the island of Jamaica. With the availability of domestically produced rum, the British changed the daily ration of liquor given to seamen from French brandy to rum. While the ration was originally given neat, or mixed with lime juice, the practice of watering down the rum began around 1740. To help minimize the effect of the alcohol on his sailors, Admiral Edward Vernon directed that the rum ration be watered down before being issued, a mixture which became known as grog.
The Royal Navy continued to give its sailors a daily rum ration, known as a “tot,” until the practice was abolished after July 31, 1970. A story involving naval rum is that following his victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, Horatio Nelson’s body was preserved in a cask of rum to allow transport back to England. Upon arrival, however, the cask was opened and found to be empty of rum. The pickled body was removed and, upon inspection, it was discovered that the sailors had drilled a hole in the bottom of the cask and drunk all the rum, in the process drinking Nelson’s blood. Thus, this tale serves as a basis for the term Nelson’s Blood being used to describe rum. It also serves as the basis for the term “Tapping the Admiral” being used to describe drinking the daily rum ration. The details of the story are disputed, with some historians claiming the term originated instead from a toast to Admiral Nelson.
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