It’s an old naval term meaning ‘Break out the Booze’.
How did that happen?
google is your friend here. From the age of sail.
“Splicing the main brace” was one of the most difficult repairs to make on a sailing ship. If it was done successfully, the men would be rewarded with an extra ration of rum. Eventually it became a term for a celebration.
Moderating
From the GQ rules:
If you’re going to Google it, at least post the actual answer.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
I’m curious as to what brought this up, especially at this moment.
I know the term mainly* from the C.S. Forester novel Lieutenant Hornblower, which I’ve re-read more times than I can count. And, in fact, I was just watching the BBC/A&E series Hornblower – in fact, the episode Mutiny which contains that scene. But that’s because I stumbled across a copy of the complete Hornblower series on DVD, and was watching all the episodes I’d missed when it was broadcast.
Is somebody re-broadcasting them right now, or have they become available on Netflix or something? Or did the OP just chance to read Lieutenant Hornblower?
- but not entirely – I’ve got several books and references on that period.
How does one splice the mainbrace? What cordage is it made of?
It was one of the main fore-and-aft supports for the masts, and might be 5 inches in diameter. Since it ran through blocks, it couldn’t be repaired by being knotted or by a splice that would increase its diameter.
I think the supports for the masts were called ‘stays’ or ‘shrouds’. If wikipedia is to be believed, the braces were used to turn the booms holding the sails. The mainbraces (there would be one on each side) would be pretty important; you couldn’t turn without them.
No sailor would permanently repair a line with a knot-- too weak. A splice is a more permanent repair.
The original ‘splice the mainbrace’ was used to any unusual and very heavy duty task - so if a ship had to winch itself from a sandbank then this would likely be rewarded.
Having had one of two tots in the past, all I can say is that sailors of yore must have been pretty well half cut most of the day, one measure of grog is quite a gobful to get down, and its not like they let you take your time drinking it - you have to pretty much get it down in one, its a precaution to prevent sailors from saving it up and having a big day with the results sometime in the future.
I only knew it from my hard work drinking Pusser’s Painkillers in the Bahamas.
Yes, 2 oz of 100 proof rum in 4 oz of water, I think.
Originall it was eight pints of small beer. That would keep you full and hydrated and slightly buzzed.
Perhaps I should have asked, “How does one go about splicing a mainbrace?”
I know a normal 3-strand rope can be repaired using a “long splice” which should enable it to pass through blocks and pulleys; this needs to be done carefully and properly to avoid weakening the rope. But what is the right way to splice a huge cable?
As far as knots go, there are shroud knots that can be used for temporary repairs (during battle, say), but, as Quercus notes, these are not as strong as a splice, nor do they preserve the diameter of the rope.
That would be a tenth of a pint of rum. The wikipedia history of the Royal Navy rum ration claims each sailor got 1/8 of a pint, which doesn’t seem like all that much. Farther down it mentions half a pint of spirits, which sounds more like it.
As Quercus says, braces are used to turn the yards in the horizontal plane, and losing one is a pretty big deal - although I disagree with those who say the ship couldn’t be maneuvered. (Clew up the mainsail and use the main sheets & tacks in conjunction with the remaining braces, you infernal lubbers!)
Braces follow a complicated path in the rigging - a mainbrace would run through fairleads up along the mizzen shrouds and change to a horizontal direction via a block.
Probably block-and-tackle for large ship where you have to overcome the wind acting on the mainsail to brace it around. So there’s no doubt it’s a seriously annoying repair job, and because there are blocks involved, you can’t knot or short-splice, even under battle conditions.
I’ve been poking around on Royal Navy boards to see if there’s a first known instance of using the euphemism, but no luck. Consensus seems to be it started as a way to reward the crew and enter it into the logbook without raising civilian eyebrows. A sailor would, at the very least, want to know if it was the port or starboard mainbrace that underwent repair.
Interestingly, the term is still in the NATO-authorized signal flag guide - AD28.
Yes, after adding water, it comes to half a pint of Grog.
wiki:
The rum ration, or “tot”, consisted of one-eighth of an imperial pint (70 mL) of rum at 95.5 proof (54.6% ABV), given out to every sailor at midday. Senior Ratings (Petty Officers and above) received their rum neat, whilst for Junior Ratings it was diluted with two parts of water to make three-eighths of an imperial pint (210 mL) of grog.
70Ml= 2.4oz. In other words, a “double”. Mixed then with water and perhaps lime juice to equal a tot of about half a pint.
How do you splice a rope?
Sorta weave it together:
To understand how the rigging on a RN sailing ship in the 18th century worked, you first need to learn a new language.
I’ve never sailed, but I have spliced ropes, and from my experience, I can see how splicing the main braces might be a royal nuisance. But I also have a hard time seeing how it could be an all-hands-on-deck situation. It seems to me that for the splicing itself, you couldn’t have any more than two people working on it (presumably, the two most nimble-fingered crewmen) without getting in each others’ ways. And maybe you might have a few more brawny guys pulling on something or another to create enough slack for the nimble-fingered guys to work. But what would everyone else be doing?