SPLICE THE MAIN BRACE IS A NAVY TRADITION

Greymouth Evening Star, 3 September 1949, Page 6

SPLICE THE MAIN BRACE IS A NAVY TRADITION

Rum, which is always news in the Royal Navy, became news to the outside world through the .King’s order, “splice the main brace,” m recognition of the Amethyst’s dash to sea down the Yangtze river, through a moonless night and under fire. ’ . The story caught the imagination, oi everybody, and it set people asking what main braces have to dp with rum issues, says an English writer. To take the rum first: the daily ration to each rating is one-eighth of a pint of neat rum (very strong stuff indeed) . which by Naval regulation has to be diluted with twice as much water and drunk in the presence of theofficcr supervising the issue. The diluted rum is called grog. . Nobody under 20 is allowed to have it Nobody is forced to have it. So every rating in the Navy is known, in respect of this spirit ration, as “grog, “temperance,” or “under-age.” If you were in one of H.M. Ships you would hear conversations such as: “Are you prog’" “No, I’m temperance.” Men over 20 who do not want the grog are credited with 3d a day extra pay insteetd Now for the main brace. Braces are p&rt of the running rigging of a ship and. are used to haul round the yards «o that the sails can be moved to the desired angle to the wind. The main braces move the main yard, the spar which carries the biggest- sail. “Splicing” a main brace, which meant joining it together when its strands had parted (perhaps through extremely heavy weather, collision or shot), was an arduous and difficult job. and men do Jobs like that with added zest when they know there is to be some treat afterwards. The treat in the old days was a tot. of rum. ■ Today H.M. ships are no longer driven by sails, and the order to splice the main brace means nothing more than the issue of a quarter of a pint of rum instead of an eighth. Men who .do not want the rum cannot have an extra 3d a day instead. They may have a special issue of onetwentieth of a pint, of lime juice and one ounce of sugar. The Navy calls this tempera nee mixture “sherbet.”