From sheer repetition over many decades, the rum world has accepted a seemingly unshakeable truth: The storied Royal Navy rum, served to Britain’s bluejackets for three centuries, is a blend of rums from Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados, and Trinidad–the Four Horsemen of British Colonial rum.

It’s an appealing narrative. After all, who doesn’t love Jamaican rum and its overripe, almost rotting banana notes? The story certainly sounds more than plausible. After all, the 1654 Penn-Venables expedition that brought Jamaica into the British fold is oft-cited as the start of British Navy’s daily rum ration for sailors. (It wasn’t.) Furthermore, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Jamaica was a first-tier rum maker for the Empire. Surely generations of thirsty British sailors consumed plenty of Jamaica’s finest pot distilled rum.

But as we’ve learned over and over, sometimes “common knowledge” is just a myth, or a half-truth at best. Fortunately, the age of Google and online archives brings history much closer to our fingertips. We can check original sources without trekking to remote and dusty rooms or simply relying on what a brand ambassador might share. So let’s get to the bottom of whether Britain’s finest were quaffing Jamaican rum in their daily tot. And while we’re at it, we may just learn much more about what the storied Royal Navy blend really was.

A Very Brief History of British Navy Rum Supply

In the 1600s, Britain’s navy ran on beer, wine, and brandy for the most part, as a significant part of the victualing supplies provided aboard ship. Inexpensive fabricated metal tanks were still many years in the future, so liquid provisions were stored in wooden casks. Spoilage was rampant, especially in hot climates. Once the water stores turned slimy and undrinkable shortly into an expedition, beer was the next best thing–its alcohol content prevents spoiling for a bit longer. Wine remained drinkable even longer due to its slightly higher alcohol content, but its freshness was hardly indefinite.

Luckily, the Royal Navy provisioners also sent ships to sea with a stash of distilled spirits. Not only were these a morale booster during long voyages, but also because at fifty percent alcohol or higher, spirits could remain unspoiled and safe to drink almost indefinitely. The most commonly issued spirit? Brandy, which was readily available from neighboring France and Spain. (After his death at the Battle of Trafalgar, the body of Britain’s storied Admiral Nelson was in fact preserved in brandy for its transport back home for burial–not in a barrel of rum, as the tale is often told.)

By the 1700s, Britain’s navy was swarming the Caribbean, and when spirits stores needed restocking, locally distilled rum was most readily available. The year 1731 brought the declaration of a daily ration to sailors of wine or rum while on “foreign stations,” if beer wasn’t available. However, it was a few more decades before the admiralty declared that all sailors would receive a daily ration of an alcoholic beverage, no matter where they were stationed.

During the 1600s and 1700s, the navy contracted with companies like Mure, Son, Atkinson to provision its fleet across the globe with required necessities, including food, clothing, and alcohol.  These suppliers very likely imported (or purchased) single-source puncheons of brandy or rum to fulfill their contracts with the navy. There’s little to suggest these supply merchants blended rums, and certainly not to any navy specification.

By the start of the 1800s, the navy had taken control of all rum purchases, specifying delivery to three provisioning or victualling yards, located in London (Deptford), Gosport, and Plymouth. The victualling board periodically placed newspaper advertisements announcing they were accepting bids to supply the navy with rum. Among the merchants winning such bids were Mr. Lehman Hart and a Mr. Alfred Lamb–names that continue to live on today as the rum brands Lemon Hart and Lamb’s Navy Rum.

The victualling board decided which rum lots to purchase based on a merchant’s quoted price and samples provided for quality review. While price was certainly a factor, inferior rums were often rejected by the board. Contracts for the provision of 200,000 gallons or more of rum were routinely signed between board and merchant, often supplying those quantities multiple times per year.

Which brings up an interesting question: What happened when thousands of puncheons arrived at the victualling yards? Did the navy maintain some sort of enormous storage facility, akin to the gigantic Kentucky bourbon rickhouses of today?

The answer is surprising: By 1840, if not earlier, large vatting systems were already in place:

The vatting system used by the navy is worth dwelling on for a moment. Contemporary reports state that the rum circulated in vats for a period of up to two years. As such, this suggests the Navy was not aging rums in casks. Rather, the vatting system was its large scale storage, with casks continually being emptied in and finished rum pulled out–a solera of sorts, although not in the Spanish style. By the late 1800s, Deptford’s victualling yard on the banks of the Thames in London had more than thirty vats in use, comprising a total capacity of over 250,000 gallons. Presumably the vatting systems at Gosport and Plymouth were smaller but still substantial.

The Navy Blend Recipe

Questions about what entered the navy’s vats are almost as old as rum ration itself. The short answer: There was no fixed recipe for British navy rum. It changed substantially over the centuries.

Prior to the navy starting to blend its own rum in the early 1800s, it’s difficult to ascribe any particular recipe to navy rum. However, once the navy began blending, we can reasonably assume that what the navy bought is what went into the blend issued to sailors.

With the onset of the victualling board’s contract bid announcements (as noted above), we gain some insights into what the board actually purchased. From many printed declarations of winning bids, it’s clear the navy rarely specified rum from specific countries, other than perhaps Jamaica. Most descriptions of rums purchased specified West Indies, Leeward Islands, or even East Indies (the former colonies now comprising India).  (Note: The Leeward Islands included Antigua, Saint Kitts, Nevis, the Virgin Islands, and others.)

An 1834 newspaper snippet reports an early purchase of Jamaican rum:[i]

However, a similar 1839 report indicates that the navy wasn’t buying Jamaican rum exclusively: [ii]

Proof Leewards is presumably rum from the Leeward Islands at proof strength, i.e., 57 percent ABV. The following year the navy purchased rum from sources outside the British Empire–including Brazil! Quite surprising, given the navy’s desire to support the home team. [iii]

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Other records paint a picture of the navy adjusting purchases to suit changing economic and geopolitical realities. The ups and downs of the Caribbean sugar and rum industry, as well as wartime shortages, impacted what they could buy in the quantity required, which was often several millions of gallons per year.

Over time, new rum sources came online and entered the navy’s vats. For example, British Guiana rum (aka Demerara) became the largest colonial rum exporter, overtaking Jamaica–but not till the mid-1800s. (Note: Demerara and British Guiana were often used interchangeably in colonial-era documents. Today, we know those regions as Guyana. I have left these terms unmodified below.)

What About Jamaican Rum?

It’s clear that the victualling commissioners purchased Jamaican rum at some point. However, by the late 1800s the situation in the Caribbean had changed, and Britain’s colonial rum makers were in dire straits, financially. It was an evolve-or-die moment, and to that end, some Jamaican rum makers began producing heavier, ester-charged rums, which commanded a higher price.

One motivation for Jamaica’s evolution in style was that Germany implemented a significant tax on imported spirits. German importers in turn sought out very heavy, high-ester Jamaican rums to import in small quantities–rum concentrate, in effect [iv]–and blended the imported heavy Jamaican rum with locally made neutral spirits to make rum verschnitt:

As Jamaican producers shifted to providing heavier, more expensive rums, the navy had less motivation to buy it: The flavor profile and price were not what they were looking for. (Note: The above isn’t to say the Jamaicans hadn’t been making heavy rums prior to this. But the commercial opportunities, spurred by the work of H.H. Cousins, undoubtedly moved them further in that direction.)

The 1908 Royal Commission on Whiskey and Other Potable Spirits is a treasure trove of details for spirit historians. Among the luminaries interviewed by the commission was Frederic Henry Dumas Man of the ED&F Man, then the rum brokers to the British admirality:

Quizzed about the navy blend, Man provides an early hint that Jamaican rum wasn’t favored:

Patent still rum is what we today call continuous or column still rum. At the time, Jamaica had only pot stills, so no Jamaican rum of the era could have been patent still rum.

Furthermore, British Parliament testimony [v] from 1924 paints a picture of the navy’s blend as primarily from Demerara and Trinidad:

Furthermore, navy correspondence [vi] from 1925 paints a very clear picture that Jamaica was a small player in the navy’s blend because of its unsuitability under normal conditions:

Further parliamentary proceedings [vii] from 1933 add this additional perspective:

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The most authoritative take on Jamaican rum use in the navy blend is the navy’s own documentation–and the 1939 Victualling manual clearly states that Jamaican rum is rarely used: [viii]

When twentieth-century descriptions of the navy blend are provided by authoritative sources, the common element is that Demerara rum is the primary component, with Trinidad rum a strong second. The remaining components were bit players and changed over time.

As discussed earlier, external circumstances sometimes altered the navy’s purchases from their preferred sources. World War II was certainly one such occasion. Faced with the need in 1944 for 3.3 million gallons of rum, the admiralty had to scramble. Eventually the purchasers held their nose and purchased Jamaican rum:[ix]

In the end, the navy sourced rums that year from Jamaica, Demerara, Barbados, and Trinidad. Surprisingly, they also bought from Cuba and Martinique–an interesting story in its own right, but for another time.

The navy’s acceptance of Jamaican rum into the blend during World War II doesn’t appear to have extended beyond the end of the conflict. A 1956 parliamentary transcript provides an updated blend:[x]

Note that while British Guiana, Trinidad, and Barbados are in the blend, Jamaica is not.

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A final glimpse into the Royal Navy’s blend comes from a fascinating 1966 news clip filmed at the Royal William victualling yard in Plymouth. (Sadly, the video is restricted to UK viewers.) In the clip, the navy’s blend is given as sixty percent Demerara, thirty percent Trinidad, and ten percent Barbados and Australia.

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At this point in the story, we need to introduce another cast member: the British army. Like the navy, the army also provided its soldiers with rum on occasion, especially in times of combat. However, unlike the navy’s policy, there was no guaranteed daily ration. Nonetheless, the British army was also buying rum independently.

What was the army buying? Great question. There are very few known records of the army’s purchases. However, we do believe that at certain times, army rum was blended at the navy’s victualling yards, although stock was kept completely separate. Nothing suggests that army and navy rum were interchangeable. Was the army buying Jamaican rum? It’s possible.

Navy Rum – Jamaican or Not?

Given the historical context given above, it’s impossible to argue that Jack Tars (a cheeky term for British sailors) never consumed Jamaican spirit during navy rum’s 315-year history. However, if a modern rum claims to be made in the style of Royal Navy rum, presumably it follows the navy’s recipe. Barring that, it might simply emulate the flavor profile of Royal Navy rum. Either way, we must be honest about what that means for any modern “navy style” blend.

With the exception of a brief moment during the World War, Jamaica was rarely part of the navy’s blend in the century prior to it being discontinued in 1970. If Jamaican rum was present, it wasn’t the predominant flavor. The sailors didn’t like it, or so said the navy.

The most detailed information on the navy’s blend comes from twentieth century records, which clearly show that very little Jamaican rum was purchased and blended.

On the other hand, if one takes the “blend to match the taste” approach, producers seeking a navy-style blend must start with a reference point for the flavor. A fairly substantial amount of real twentieth century navy rum remains available, while there’s no existing authentic navy rum from prior centuries. Thus, a true twentieth century navy rum must be the flavor benchmark. But again, Jamaican rum was virtually absent from twentieth century navy blends, and its distinctive flavors won’t be present.

Consumer navy rums from the 1930s onward mostly respect that reality. The big navy rum brands of the mid-twentieth century were Lamb’s, Lemon Hart, and Caroni. The first two labeled themselves as Demerara rums, the latter as Trinidad [xi], in line with what we know of the modern recipe.

Even Pusser’s, the modern incarnation of consumer navy rum, makes no claim to a Jamaican heritage in its blend. The final navy rum recipe was provided to Pusser’s by ED&F Man in 1979. By their own admission, Pusser’s rum sources have always heavily relied on a Demerara component, and these days it is distilled and blended entirely in Guyana.

So yes, funky Jamaican rum is delicious and pairs well with other strongly flavored rum like Port Mourant from Guyana, or Caroni from Trinidad. But a Jamaican-forward blend didn’t exist in the twentieth century, and likely never had. Something worth considering while sipping your next pour of navy rum.

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[i] Waterford Mail, 25 January 1834
[ii] Kerry Evening Post, 03 August 1839
[iii] Parliamentary papers v.8 (East India Produce) 1840
[iv] Report of the West India Royal Commission; 1897
[v] Hansard, Navy Rum and Allowances; Feb. 28, 1924
[vi] British National Archives CO 137/779; 1925
[vii] Hansard; HC Deb 15 February 1933 vol 274 cc983-4
[viii] British National Archives ADM 234.19; 1939
[ix] British National Archives ADM 1.15472; 1944
[x] Hansard, Rum (Countries Of Origin); June 14, 1956
[xi] There was a Rope & Anchor Jamaican “Navy Rum”, alongside a Demerara version.