FOOD HISTORY: Gin (Part 3) The Part Played by the British Navy"

 FOOD HISTORY: Gin   (Part 3) The Part Played by the British Navy".

Extensive voyages by British navy ships to far distant ports around the world lead to outbreaks of the  disease scurvy; a nutritional  deficiency disease common to sailors on long voyages having to eat diets lacking in an  essential nutritional component; later discovered  to be vitamin C. At that time, however, even though the "cause" of scurvy was unknown, it had been found that sailors given citrus juice aboard ships did not come down with the disease. Therefore, in 1795, the  British Navy issued  an order  to provide a lemon  juice ration to every Navy sailor as a preventive measure to prevent this disease. Lemon juice was replaced by lime juice in 1840, thus, British sailors, after that, were called, "Limeys". (The Merchant Shipping Act of 1867 made this requirement mandatory for sailors on British merchant ships, as well.) Further, from time immemorial, British Navy sailors were given an alcoholic drink ration to prevent drunkenness' from sailors bringing their own, unrestricted alcohol supplies aboard ship. Beer was the drink of choice; one gallon per man per day. When sea voyages became so much longer, ships could not carry the amount of beer needed before it became spoiled. Therefore, substitutions of one pint of wine or one half pint of spirits were introduced. For the sailors the spirit was rum; for the officers it was Gin, which, at that time, was believed to be the cure for various illnesses. "Navy" gin was much stronger (57% alcohol) than the original gin (41.2%)  In 1740, Admiral Edward Vernon seeing that the drinking of sailors rum ration led to a variety of problems among the crew, ordered (Order #349) that the rum ration be diluted one half with water and that sailors could purchase limes and sugar to make the drink more palatable. The sailors did this and named their "new" drink," Grog" the shortened  nickname (Old Grog)  given to Admiral Vernon for wearing a cloak made of grogram cloth. In the same year, according to legend which may or may not be true, Navy Surgeon Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Desmond Gimlette proscribed that the  naval officers daily ration of lime juice be mixed with their Gin to mask its bitterness, ensuring that  his officers also had  the limes anti-scurvy benefit. Since many sailors mixed their lime juice with water diluted rum and sugar to make it more palatable, the officers probably did this with their gin, as well.They called their drink, a "Gimlet", named after Admiral Gimlette. Since all British sailors and officers used sugar sweetened lime juice in their alcoholic beverages, this may have been the precursor to," Rose's" sweetened lime juice, developed by Sir Lachlan Rose who, in 1857, developed a method of preserving a stable lime juice solution.. Ths quickly became popular with the sailors, their officers  and later, bartenders and people for home use in making 'Gimlets". When the Navy brought gin to tropical British colonies, gin found another"medicinal"  use. Colonists used it to mask the bitter taste of Quinine dissolved in  carbonated water, that   they called "tonic water", to prevent malaria. This mixture went on to become  a very popular social drink. Thus, gin and  tonic was born and, later was  transported  by British colonists to be enjoyed around the world.  Another Gin based drink, as is said, "became history."