Q 01/05

Which admiral, known as 'Old Grog' for a grogram cloak, ordered the Royal Navy's rum ration watered down in 1740?

A) George Rodney

B) John Jervis

C) Edward Vernon

D) Samuel Hood

Answer · why

C) Edward Vernon

Edward Vernon gave the drink its name, and the drink gave English the word groggy. The mix of half a pint of rum to a quart of water began on his West...

Q 02/05

Black Tot Day, when Royal Navy sailors wore armbands to mourn the last daily rum ration, fell in which year?

A) 1945

B) 1956

C) 1962

D) 1970

Answer · why

D) 1970

The last tot was poured on 31 July 1970, and one training base staged a mock funeral with a black coffin, drummers and a piper. The Admiralty Board ru...

Q 03/05

Which nickname for Britons comes from the citrus juice the Royal Navy added to sailors' grog against scurvy?

A) Tommy

B) Limey

C) Pom

D) Redcoat

Answer · why

B) Limey

Limey stuck even though switching from lemons to colonial limes roughly halved the vitamin C and let scurvy creep back. Lemons came first; limes repla...

Q 04/05

Which future novelist, in turban and stage make-up, toured HMS Dreadnought in 1910 posing as Abyssinian royalty?

A) Agatha Christie

B) Vita Sackville-West

C) Dorothy L. Sayers

D) Virginia Woolf

Answer · why

D) Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf, still Virginia Stephen, was one of six hoaxers led by Horace de Vere Cole who were shown round the fleet's flagship with full honours....

Q 05/05

After Trafalgar, Nelson's body was carried home to England preserved in a cask of what?

A) Rum

B) Vinegar

C) Seawater

D) Brandy

Answer · why

D) Brandy

Brandy did the pickling, which is why rum's nickname 'Nelson's blood' rests on a legend that sailors drank from the cask on the voyage. At Gibraltar t...