This article appeared in the Wine Country Chapter's newsletter "Vintage Wood"

 

The following tale is from the history of the oldest commissioned war ship in the world, the USS Constitution. It comes by way of the National Park Service, as printed in "Oceanographic Ships, Fore and Aft", a periodical from the oceanographer of the US Navy.

 

On 23 August, 1779, the USS Constitution set sail from Boston, loaded with 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of water, 74,00 cannon shot, 11,500 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum. Her mission: to destroy and harass English shipping. 

 

On 6 October, she made Jamaica, took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum. three weeks later, Constitution reached the Azores, where she provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 2,300 gallons of Portuguese wine. 

 

On 18 November, she set sail for England where her crew captured and scuttled 12 English merchant vessels and took aboard their rum. By this time, Constitution had rum out of shot. Nevertheless, she made her way unarmed up the Firth of Clyde for a night raid. Here, her landing party captured a whiskey distillery, transferred 13,000 gallons aboard and headed for home. 

 

On February 1780, the Constitution arrived in Boston with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum and no whiskey. She did, however, still carry her crew of 475 officers and men and 18,600 gallons of water.

 

The math is quite enlightening:

 

Length of cruise: 181 days

 

Booze consumption: 1.26 gallons per man per day (this does NOT include the unknown quantity of rum captured from the English merchant vessels in November).

 

Naval historians say that the re-enlistment rate from this cruise was 92%. GO NAVY!!