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's nickname is said to have named the drink, and grog in turn gave English the word groggy; the watering-down began in his own squadron i...

Q 02/05

What do sailors call 31 July 1970, when the Royal Navy issued its last rum ration?

A) Black Tot Day

B) Dry Ship Day

C) Last Orders Day

D) Dead Marine Day

Answer · why

A) Black Tot Day

Black Tot Day followed an Admiralty Board ruling that rum no longer suited crews working complex, delicate machinery; some sailors wore black armbands...

Q 03/05

Which nickname for Britons comes from what the Royal Navy issued to its sailors to ward off scurvy?

A) Tommy

B) Limey

C) Pom

D) Redcoat

Answer · why

B) Limey

Limey began as the jeer 'lime-juicer', and it stuck even though the navy's switch from lemons to colonial limes, which hold much less vitamin C, let s...

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

Legend says rum, but Nelson's body was actually carried home from Trafalgar preserved in a cask of what?

A) Gin

B) Whisky

C) Port

D) Brandy

Answer · why

D) Brandy

Brandy, mixed with camphor and myrrh, did the pickling, and at Gibraltar the body was moved to a lead-lined coffin filled with spirits of wine; the ru...