I wish my wife and lover never to meet again! -Talking about Nelson's Blood

"To his wife and lover, may they never meet again! Our wives and sweethearts, may they never meet again! )"

On the ocean, it rains cats and dogs. Jack Aubrey )*, the captain of HMS Surprise, is having dinner with senior officers on board in the dining room in the stern building. The captain raised his glass, made a toast, and then began to talk about his time as the "brother" of General Nelson, the god of war. It turns out that this is a scene in the movie Master and Commander, not a small wish of a "successful" man.

* The real captain of surprise in history is captain Edward Hamilton. The British classified Surprise as a 6-class frigate with 28 guns and actually carried 34 guns.

If you just smile at this interesting line, you may just be an ordinary audience. Only those who know the British naval tradition very well can understand that this day is Saturday. Because according to the naval tradition of the British Empire, there are standard toasts on warships every day:

On Monday, "to our ship!" ; ("Our ships at sea!") )

Tuesday, "To our brothers!" ; ("Our men!" )

On Wednesday, "To ourselves!" ; ("ourselves!" )

On Thursday, "I wish you hard work, promotion and wealth!" " ; ("A bloody war or a sick season! ")

Friday, "Respect for ambition and the sea!" ; A willing enemy and a sea room! )

Saturday, "May lovers and wives never meet again!" ; ("Our wives and sweethearts!" , usually reply "May they never meet again!" )

On Sunday, "to those brothers who didn't come!" " "("absent friends! " )。

* 2065 438+03 Lieutenant General David Steele, Second Minister of the Royal Navy, issued an order to formally change the toast on Tuesday and Saturday to "our sailors" and "our family".

But wait a minute, the captain takes everyone to dinner, and there are different kinds of toasts every day? That means eating and drinking? Is it possible to avoid "drunk driving" when driving a warship for the Queen?

Yes, of course. Besides, the wine is from the Queen!

Rum, a strong drink called "Nelson's blood" by naval soldiers, is really a standard food for the Royal Navy. Nelson, the god of war at that time, died for his country in the naval battle of Trafalgar. In order to take his body back to England, he was put in a barrel of rum (brandy) mixed with camphor and myrrh, and then the barrel was tied to the main mast of the Victory and guarded by people. But when he returned to England and opened the barrel, people found that the wine was gone! ! A small hole was deliberately made under the bucket. The "tiger bone wine" of British sailors is really heavy! Now slang says that illegal drinking in the army is still called "beating the admiral!" ) ",and this popular strong drink has won the nickname" Nelson's blood ".

At that time, I didn't know if there was a "mojito", but different drinking methods of rum blending have long been quite popular among naval soldiers, such as:

Rum+water+sugar+nutmeg =Bumbo

Rum+brandy+beer+sugar+hot iron pimple =Flipa

For the dilution of this kind of liquor, sailors also have their own expressions: due north = pure liquor? , due west = pure water, north west wind = half the same. If it is described as "southerly", it means that this cup is empty.

This is not the author's invention. Jeanette MacDonald has detailed textual research and description in the book "The Navy Feeding Nelson". /kloc-In the second half of the 0/7th century, British catering standards were gradually standardized. By 1733, the British Admiralty officially issued the first set of regulations and instructions related to the service of the His Majestic at sea, and the catering standards were formally incorporated into the regulations. It seems that what soldiers eat every day is a "direct" concern for the kings of the British Empire.

Let's take a look at the daily food supply table of the British imperial navy two or three hundred years ago.

The second item on the list is wine, a gallon of beer a day, or 1/2 pints of rum and other spirits. The metric unit is almost 6 Liang, which is exactly three bottles of "Niulanshan Xiaoer". Heroic killers can also get extra rewards, which can be used both internally and externally. It is said that when the British army ended the rum rationing system on the ship in 1970, the navy soldiers were bereaved for a time, and many people held a royal sea burial for rum barrels.

At the dinner in the captain's and commander's stern restaurant, the captain and the doctor continued their conversation: (On the plate, under the black and hard bread, two fat bugs just emerged from the bread are struggling to crawl ...)

C: Which one do you prefer?

Doctor: These two are exactly the same. They are all weevils. I will choose the one on the right. Looks fierce.

Captain: Ha ha ha, you are right again. Don't you know that there is a saying in the army called' the lesser of two evils'?

Doctor: Er, ... Your jokes are too cold.

......

These film and television works, coupled with the legend of scurvy at sea, left the impression that the navy's food was poor, as if bacon and weevil biscuits with the taste of "zombies" were the standard of the navy. In fact, these descriptions are either to set off the feelings of "revolutionary optimism" or to compare the old and new societies with "recalling bitter experience and thinking sweet", but obviously they are not in line with the rigorous study of the military history of the British navy.

In fact, the Royal Navy in the voyage era gradually developed and improved a set of reasonable and efficient maritime military logistics support system, and the dietary standards of officers and men were institutionalized, which was obviously ahead of other military powers in the same era. According to calculations, the weekly food quota of the above-mentioned British sailors is as high as 4,500-5,000 calories per day, while a modern adult man only needs 2,500-3,000 calories per day. For modern people who are racking their brains to keep fit, the daily quota of British sailors can last for a week if they save some food. Even sailors engaged in manual labor on modern ships usually need no more than 3,200 calories a day, but modern sailors no longer need to drag nearly 3 tons of artillery every day, wield adrenaline and hormones needed by broadswords, and do not need extra heat to keep warm at night. "Although a sailor may complain about the Royal Navy, his diet is much better than that of any other country's navy or merchant ship in the world, and his quota is much larger." (William Cockburn). Take the British frigate Doris as an example, 182 1, a four-month trip to South America. For the 240 crew members, she brought 107 tons of water, 14 tons of biscuits, 12 tons of bacon, 4 tons of peas, oats, sugar, cocoa, lemon juice and 6. * Excerpted from The Navy Feeding Nelson. For a sail warship with a displacement just over 1000 tons, how to load and store these daily necessities in the cabin needs careful consideration. In addition to the description of overseas navigation materials, warships sailing and fighting on the European coast also include a large number of fresh meat, fruits and vegetables. Take Richard Bromley, purser of Belleisle, a Mediterranean fleet commanded by Nelson, as an example. During the periods of 1803, 165438+ 10 and 65438+February, 987 Chinese cabbages and 4400 Chinese cabbages were purchased for the fleet from the Spanish port. Many warships of the Mediterranean Fleet, including Nelson, have a record of buying lemons and oranges in large quantities when they dock. John Swanne, a navy chaplain, mentioned in the book, "Those poor, thin and helpless boys ... joined the navy after a hard life ... grew up extremely fast under the nourishment of the navy's rich materials, beyond everyone's imagination, and suddenly became great men."

In the era of sail warships, the giant guns of the warships of the two warring parties formed their own fronts, lined up at sea and fought against each other. This standard style of play is also the origin of the name "warship". However, represented by the Battle of Trafalgar, the British Navy gradually improved the conservative artillery tactics of arranging battlefronts, and developed such tactics as inserting, cutting, encircling the opposing battlefronts, close-range hand-to-hand combat, and creating local military advantages, which were tried and tested, and gradually dominated the naval battlefield. This tactic requires sailors to climb up and down the mast, constantly adjust their sails according to the change of wind direction, or manipulate heavy windlass to adapt to the rapid change of tide, so that clumsy warships can quickly occupy a favorable position; It is necessary to manipulate the artillery weighing several tons, push the muzzle out of the gun door to launch, fill the interior of the hull, and then push forward the launch. From time to time, it is necessary to rush to the enemy ship with a broadsword. Only when you have obviously superior ship control skills, maneuverability, firing speed of naval guns and high morale can you get the rum reward alive in a bloody battle. This kind of high-intensity sports accomplishment comes from daily high-intensity training, all of which need a strong body as the foundation. It is hard to imagine that a group of sailors with sallow complexion, bleeding gums and helpless hands can accomplish these arduous tasks that require professional skills, physical strength, courage and cooperation by relying on "high passion for loving the queen" and "mobilization before the war" and contribute to the imperial navy's dominance of the ocean.

1September 803 19, John Snepp, the medical officer of the British Mediterranean Fleet, suggested to the fleet commander Nelson: "It is absolutely necessary to keep the sailors strong, brave and adventurous, which is so critical on the day of the battle." Although it is easy to lead to the by-product of "I wish my wife and lover never meet again", a good diet is the key to strong physique and adventurous spirit. Because of this, Nelson dared to use shocking column propulsion tactics in the naval battle of Trafalgar and won the most brilliant victory in naval history.

Glory Fleet/Orange Lake Studio Works