The Last Consignment. The Holy Grail of Navy Rum. Blog post by Thomas Heie Nielsen

Blog post by Thomas Heie Nielsen

But first we need to dig into the history. For centuries the English navy handed out daily rations of rum - a tot - to British sailors. The tradition of the daily tot goes all the way back to 1655.

It was easy for British ships to top up their rum in the ports of the various Caribbean destinations. They usually stuck to the English colonies, which produced the powerful rum they liked. The rum was often variable and of dubious character, but it was at cask strength, and the casks were simply blended together so they could be filled right up. Quantity and strength mattered more than quality.

Pouring the rum together in the casks, the constant motion of the sea and the high humidity of the tropics all sped up maturation. And when the blend consists of rum components from Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana and not least Jamaica, the result was something we would probably call hard going today. It later became what we know as Navy Rum: a blend of English-style rum at a minimum of 54.5% ABV.

You can read more about Navy Rum in Carsten's blog post here:
https://eng.whisky.dk/shop/navy-rum-fair-18828p.html

You can read more about Navy Strength, Gunpowder Proof and Overproof in my blog post here: https://eng.whisky.dk/shop/navy-strength-vs-18107p.html

Rum has plenty of advantages beyond tasting good. It was cheap, easy to stack and store on board, and it kept for a very long time - unlike water and beer, which quickly went off. Sailors were entitled to an Imperial gallon, 4.54 litres, of beer a day. But as mentioned it spoiled fast, and once the beer was drunk or ruined, they drank rum.

For many years the sailors got a pint of rum a day, split into two servings. Half at 12:00 and the other half at 17:00. An Imperial pint is 568 ml. That works out at nearly 57 cl of rum a day. Every day. At cask strength. The ship's Purser handed out the ration. Later he was referred to as the Pusser, which in turn gave its name to the well-known brand Pusser's Rum.

The daily ration shrank over the years as ships became better at storing drinkable liquids for longer - and no doubt because drunk or hungover sailors are difficult to deal with, in war and in peace. From 1850 to 1970 the daily tot was an eighth of an Imperial pint (71 ml) of rum at 95.5 proof (54.5% ABV), served at midday.

On 31 July 1970 it was over. The day became known as Black Tot Day, the day the last tot was poured on board the ships of the British navy. Equipment and weaponry had become so advanced that drinking alcohol on watch simply would not do.

The Last Consignment.
Historical records suggest that the rum used for the daily tot was imported from the West Indies in oak casks by a broker in London who had been the official rum merchant and importer to the English navy since 1784. The rum was blended in large oak vessels - vats - in the historic victualling yards at Deptford in East London, Gosport and Devonport, and shipped from there to Royal Navy vessels around the world.

Once the daily tot ceased on board, all the casks were shipped back to London. The casks, along with the rum sitting in the great oak vats at the London rum store, were bottled into wicker-wrapped stone flagons, boxed up and moved to various bonded warehouses around London, where they sat undisturbed for nearly 40 years.

Brothers Sukhinder and Raj Singh of The Whisky Exchange in London bought a few of those flagons from a former sailor back in 2007. They picked up the trail of the rest of the historic navy rum and eventually bought the entire stock. They discovered that the rum from the different bonded warehouses varied in character - there was a genuine difference in taste between flagons and between warehouses. Their Black Tot Last Consignment bottle is therefore a blend of these different flagons.

A number of unopened flagons were also sold off. That is probably as close as you get to a single cask of The Last Consignment, since each flagon has its own unique flavour profile. A handful of flagons made their way to Denmark. One of them was opened by Whisky.dk in 2023 and decanted into sample bottles, which means it is now possible to taste this piece of naval history. I have done so. Thoroughly.
Colour:
Deep mahogany with a reddish-brown cast.

Nose:
This rum has sat in cask, been tucked away and shut in for a very long time. So it needs time in the glass. Time to open up and unfold. Plenty of time. The first immediate impressions are very old Guyana rum and a lot of cask.

After half an hour or so of opening up, notes of eucalyptus, camphor, leather oil, ship's varnish and something medicinal come through.

It does smell a little of Caroni. Not a dirty Caroni bomb. A soft Caroni. An aromatic Caroni. There is some Port Mourant on the nose too, and it is hardly unlikely that those two components are in the blend. There are also notes of sweet dried fruit, dates and figs in particular, and perhaps a slightly nutty edge.

Palate:
It simply tastes of A LOT. Plenty of cask on the palate. As on the nose there is eucalyptus, hazelnut and pine nuts. A slightly tart, dry edge despite what must be a considerable age. And it does taste a fair bit of Caroni. Not one of the wild ones that tips over into asphalt and rubber tyres, but a softer, more balanced Caroni. If you have tasted Caroni and love it, you will be in no doubt. It tastes really good. An experience.

Conclusion:
As mentioned, tasting this Last Consignment has been a great pleasure. It clearly contains a far from insignificant portion of Caroni along with a good share of Guyana rum, most likely Port Mourant. Other solid English-style rum components may well be in there too. It is complex and at the same time hard going. The heavy cask influence softens the rum despite the powerful distillates.

It is as though this Last Consignment is the grown-up version of Velier Very Old Navy Rum, which also carries a good share of Caroni. But this original version simply has so much more, and the history to go with it. This is not only a pleasure to taste, it is a historical experience. And it is like Caroni: there is only what was made. There is no more, and there will be no more.

So if you are mad about rum and navy rum in particular - the powerful English style - and if you love the story of rum, sailors and English naval history, do not cheat yourself out of this remarkable experience.

Splice the mainbrace!

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