Nelson’s Blood: The Story of Naval Rum

First edition, second printing.  200pp, colour plate illustrations and further black and white illustrations in text.  Blue cloth-covered boards, white lettering on spine.  Cloth very slightly bruised at spine ends. Gift inscription inked on the half-title page else internally neat, clean, bright and tight.  In its original, illustrated dust wrapper, price clipped and slightly faded.  Dust jacket now protected in an archival quality Mylar wrapper fitted without the use of tape or adhesives.

A social history of the Royal Navy from 1655, told through the story of rum, known in the navy as ‘Nelson’s Blood’ and introduced in the West Indies, as an alternative to beer, by Admiral ‘Old Grogram’ Vernon (from whence comes the term ‘grog’).  Grog remained a feature of navy life until Black Tot Day, 31 July 1970, when the Admiralty finally decided it had no place in a modern navy.