Grog!

We shouldn't let this date go uncelebrated: 21-August-1740. Admiral
Edward Vernon from HMS Burford in the West Indies issued Order 349 which
specified in part "... the unanimous opinion of both Captains and
Surgeons that the pernicious allowance of rum in drams, and often at
once, is attended with many fatal effects to their morals as well as
their health besides the ill consequences of stupefying their rational
qualities ... you are hereby required and directed ... that the
respective daily allowance ... be every day mixed with the proportion of
a quart of water to a half pint of rum ... in a scuttled butt kept for
that purpose ... upon the deck ... in the presence of the Lieutenant of
the Watch, who is to take particular care to see that the men are not
defrauded in having their full allowance of rum."

Evidently the US Navy adopted Royal Navy traditions as their own until
the temperance movement mucked things up. Here is a story based on the
log book of the USS Constitution:

The U.S.S. Constitution, as a combat vessel carried 48,600 gallons of
fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men. This was sufficient to
last six months of sustained operations at sea. She carried no
evaporators (fresh water distillers).

However, let it be noted that according to her log, "On July 27, 1798,
the U.S.S. Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475
officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot,
11,600 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum."

Her mission: "To destroy and harass English shipping."

Making Jamaica on 6 October, she took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300
gallons of rum. Then she headed for the Azores, arriving there 12
November. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of
Portuguese wine.

On 18 November, she set sail for England. In the ensuing days she
defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English
merchantmen, salvaging only the rum aboard each.

By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted. Nevertheless, and
though unarmed, she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland.
Her landing party captured a whiskey distillery and transferred 40,000
gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn.

The U.S.S. Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February 1799, with no
cannon shot, no food, no powder, NO rum, NO wine, NO whiskey and 38,600
gallons of stagnant water.