The Royal Navy has tightened the rules of alcohol use aboard its ships to a maximum of 14 units a week per sailor, the BBC reports. Under the new rules, Royal Navy personnel should not consume more than three units of alcohol per day and ships must enforce two alcohol-free days per week.
Ships will now sell a range of zero and low alcohol drinks to encourage responsible drinking.
The Navy said the new policy was in line with the UK chief medical officer’s health advice and would “ensure our people remain fit for naval operations”.
The new restrictions do not apply to sailors when they are not on board ships – including when on on-shore bases.
Previous guidelines allowed sailors to have two cans of beer a day, which is roughly equivalent to more than three units, dependent on the strength.
These had to be signed out so there was a record of what had been drunk on board, and were paid for by the sailors themselves.
A Navy source told the BBC that the new alcohol limits will be monitored in the same way, with sailors still paying for their own drinks.
The new rules apply to all ranks but senior ratings will be able “to use their discretion” when applying the rules to themselves, the source added.
If there were to be an incident on board where anyone drank too much and wasn’t able to perform their duties effectively, the Navy source said that this would be dealt with in much the same way that it is now, which is on board the ship.
The modern guidelines are a far cry from previous Royal Navy traditions.
For hundreds of years, sailors would queue up to receive their regulation lunchtime tot of rum. This ended in 1970, on a day known in the Navy as Black Tot Day.
“It was badly received. There was a lot of muttering below the decks,” Commander David Allsop said at the time.
The current UK chief medical officer’s drinking guidelines, which were introduced in 2016, says men and women who drink regularly should consume no more than 14 units a week – equivalent to six pints of beer or seven glasses of wine.
At the time the current guidelines were announced, the UK’s chief medical officers said that research showed that any amount of alcohol could increase the risk of cancer.
The Royal Australian Navy rules are as follows:
No alcohol can be consumed when the ship is at sea or at anchor.
When alongside – when the ship is alongside in home port (daily harbour) the normal routine there is still no alcohol to be consumed and the Coxsains will do a random breath test of personal when they come onboard in the morning (may be hung over from drinking ashore the previous night). There is no ‘Beer issue’ in home port (duty watch can not drink) and as 90% of the crew live ashore and go home each evening and can drink then. At the end of the working day (in home port) Officers and senior sailors might have a drink in there mess before heading home (but most just go home).
When deployed outside of home port (another Australian port or overseas and at 24 hours or more notice for seas or more the Wardroom and Senior Sailor mess bar could be open – but also people might just go ashore and drink.
The death of Leading Seaman Gurr some years back ( illegal drinking at sea and fell overboard) off Christmas Island curtailed much of the drinking culture.
If in foreign ports and buy duty free grog us purchased it has the be declared when coming on board and put in the ships bond store for issue when arrived back in home port. Random search for alcohol and drugs are under taken and sometimes the drug dogs are brought on board.
