Admiral Vernon, “Old Grog”

Recently there have been multiple articles in the press and across the Internet citing a recent study published in the Danish Journal of Archaeology (Dec. 23, 2013) which claims that grog was consumed in Norway as far back as 1,500 BC. (The article is available on-line, though not for free.  I chose not to spend the $172 to purchase the issue of the journal, so I am relying in the various reports of their findings.)  Physics.org is fairly typical: “The new biomolecular archaeological evidence provides concrete evidence for an early, widespread, and long-lived Nordic grog tradition, one with distinctive flavors and probable medicinal purposes…” Science 2.0 is similar with the addition of a pinch of snark: “Like most things, somewhere along the way the British navy has tried to take credit for it, so you often see it called a rum drink. Instead of being rum-based, ancient grog was a hybrid beverage made from whatever local ingredients they could turn into alcohol, including honey, bog cranberry, lingonberry, bog myrtle, yarrow, juniper, birch tree resin, wheat, barley rye — and sometimes even from grape wine imported from southern or central Europe.”

My only response to this is to say — no, no no.  I have no doubt, whatsoever, that ancient peoples found ways to get plastered with various concoctions which may have included fruit. Nevertheless, grog has a specific history and origin which dates back only to the 1740s.

Since early days, navies issued rations of alcohol to their crews. In the Royal Navy, until the capture of Jamaica in 1687, that ration was usually beer.  Beer tended to spoil on long voyages, however, and the Royal Navy shifted to rum.  The only problem with rum was that sailors could horde their daily supply and then get paralytic drunk and be useless for sailing the ship.  Admiral Vernon found a way to address the problem, to dilute the rum with water, which became very bitter in a day or two.  From World Wide Words:

In 1740, Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon was commanding officer of the British naval forces in the West Indies during the conflict with Spain that was weirdly named the War of Jenkins’ Ear, after a captain who in 1731 had had an ear cut off in a skirmish with the Spanish. Vernon was so concerned about the bad effects of the rum ration on his sailors that in August that year he issued an order that in future the rum ration was to be served diluted:

To Captains of the Squadron! Whereas the Pernicious Custom of the Seamen drinking their Allowance of Rum in Drams, and often at once, is attended by many fatal Effects to their Morals as well as their Health, the daily allowance of half a pint a man is to be mixed with a quart of water, to be mixed in one Scuttled Butt kept for that purpose, and to be done upon Deck, and in the presence of the Lieutenant of the Watch, who is to see that the men are not defrauded of their allowance of Rum.

It so happened that Admiral Vernon was known for wearing a heavy grogam coat in foul weather, and was nicknamed “Old Grog.”  (Grogram was a mixture of silk with mohair or wool, often stiffened with gum.)  As Old Grog instigated the diluting of the rum, the drink itself became known as grog.   By around 1800, lemon or lime juice would be added to the grog to prevent scurry and also to improve the flavor.   Modern versions of grog usually are a mixture of rum, water, lemon or lime juice and sugar as well a other garnishes such as nutmeg, which a Royal Navy sailor would never have encountered.

To be fair the meaning of the term “grog” varies around the the world.   From the Wikipedia entry for “Grog“:

By contrast, in Australia and New Zealand the word has come to mean any alcoholic drink. 

In Sweden and some subcultures within the English-speaking world, grog is a common description of drinks not made to a recipe (in Sweden the mixture is usually between 25%-50% spirit and 75%-50% softdrink), but by mixing various kinds of alcohol and soda, fruit juice or similar ingredients (in the USA this would be a highball with no defined proportions). The difference between the Swedish definition of grog and long drinks, mixed drinks or punches is the number of ingredients. The number of ingredients in drinks may vary, but grog typically has just one kind of liquor (most commonly vodka or brännvin, cognac or eau de vie) and one kind of a non-alcoholic beverage. Grosshandlargrogg (Wholesaler grogg) refers to a mix of Eau de vie and Trocadero (a caffeinated apple- and orange flavored soft drink). 

In Fiji, the term “grog” refers to a drink made by pounding sun-dried kava root into a fine powder and mixing it with cold water. Traditionally, grog is drunk from the shorn half-shell of a coconut, called a “bilo.”

So far, I have seen no evidence that the English term grog in all its various incarnations predates the diluted rum drink of 1740.  It is possible that the Scandinavian version of the word developed independently.  Scandinavian glögg, a mulled wine drink, pronounced glooog, sounds quite close to grog, depending on how much one has had to drink of either.

As an aside, George Washington’s home in Virginia, Mount Vernon was named in honor of Admiral Edward Vernon, “Old Grog” himself, though presumably the name was chosen in honor of his naval victories rather than for his diluting the rum ration.