INFORMATION FOR PROSPECTIVE MEMBERS

AIMS OF THE CLUB:

1. To confirm daily allegiance to and/or respect for the Crown by proposing the Loyal Toast to Her Majesty, The Queen.

2. To carry on a revered tradition, sadly ended in 1970, by consuming half a gill of the nearest equivalent to the rum which was issued to the Royal Navy (i.e. Pusser's Blue Label).

3. To signal the nominal end of the working day at 1800 hrs. local time by a gathering of like-minded individuals who make up the membership.

4. To provide visiting Royal naval warships with marine based leisure activities and organise entertainment for the crew in the Nelsons Dockyard area.

5. To promote and foster friendship and goodwill in the English and Falmouth Harbour areas through entertainment and social services.

DATES PROSPECTIVE MEMBERS SHOULD KNOW

1. 1 August 1798. The Battle of the Nile. The first of Nelson's three major victories. During this battle the French flagship, L'Orient, caught fire and blew up in spectacular fashion with heavy casualties, including the French Admiral, Brueys. The Flag-Captain of L'Orient was the Compte de Casa Bianca, who was badly wounded in the earlier stages of the fighting. He had taken his small son aged ten to sea with him. 

The pathetic death of this small boy who "stood on the burning deck" is commemorated in the well known poem written in 1829. After the battle, the Captain of H.M.S. Swiftsure had a coffin made for Nelson from L'Orient's mainmast; it is in this coffin that Nelson is buried in St. Paul's Cathedral. This victory prevented Napoleon's troops capturing Egypt and thus advancing towards India.

2. 2 April 1801. The Battle of Copenhagen.  It was at this battle that Nelson disregarded the signal to break off the action from his Commander-In-Chief, Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, by putting his telescope to his blind eye and saying "...I have only one eye. I have a right to be blind sometimes. I really do not see the signal." He subsequently went on to achieve a great victory. 

3. 21 October 1805. The Battle of Trafalgar. It was here that Nelson aboard H.M.S. Victory defeated the combined fleets of France and Spain, thus removing any threat of invasion by Napoleon and securing England's mastery of the seas. At the height of the battle, Nelson was mortally wounded by a shot from the French ship Redoutable. At 11:35am, the famous signal "England Expects That Every Man Will Do His Duty" was hoisted from the yards of H.M.S. Victory. Later, Nelson's last signal "Engage The Enemy More Closely" was hoisted and flew at the masthead until shot away.

4. 6 November 1805. The sloop H.M.S. Pickle arrived in England bearing the news of the great victory and of Vice-Admiral Lord Nelson's death.

5. 31 July 1970. The date of the last daily issue of rum in the Royal Navy.

6. 31 July 1991. The Royal Naval Tot Club of Antigua & Barbuda was formed.

THE TOASTS:

The Royal Naval Tot Club of Antigua & Barbuda combines the traditional toasts of the officers and the lower deck of the Royal Navy. In the case of the officers, the toast varied daily; on the lower deck it never varied. The officers' toasts were - and in fact still are - made when the port was passed after dinner, while the ratings singular toast was always made on the issue of the rum ration.

1. Sunday.................Absent Friends And Those At Sea
2. Monday................Our Ships At Sea
3. Tuesday................Our Men 
4. Wednesday...........Ourselves (As no one else is liable to consider themselves with our welfare)
5. Thursday...............A Bloody War And A Sickly Season
6. Friday...................A Willing Foe and Sea Room
7. Saturday...............Sweethearts And Wives (May they never meet!)  

Notes:
1. A very eloquent toast for the beginning of the week.

2. Self-explanatory. A toast to all Navy ships at sea.

3. This was a toast to the often hundreds of sailors that made up the crew of the ship. The Tot Club has modified this, as we personally don't have hundreds of men crewing for us! The Tot Club's Tuesday toast is "To Our Friends".

4. On Wednesdays the officers toasted themselves, as it was generally felt (not without some reason) that on a three or four year commission on some foreign station out of regular communication, it was very much a case of "Out of sight, out of mind, and be damned to them".

5. The Thursday toast originated in the Caribbean during the time of the Anglo-French Wars, sugar-rich islands, and high death rates due to such diseases as Malaria and Yellow Jack Fever. The connotation was that one hoped for rapid promotion by the death of his immediate superior by either battle or disease. To preserve some modern-day sensibilities, the toast is sometimes given " To A Bloody War And A Quick Promotion".  The Tot Club combines the two to a double toast, "To A Bloody War And A Sickly Season, A Bloody War And A Quick Promotion".

6. Again, fairly obvious. This toast was to an enemy willing to give a good and honourable fight with enough sea room that shoals, etc., did not affect the outcome.

7. This toast says it all! And, it must be said that some of our lady members have been known to substitute "Husbands And Lovers" for the first part. A variation coined by one of Overseas Members but, unfortunately, never used is "To Sweethearts and Wives, May They Be The Same Person".

All of the above toasts are followed by the standing toast of the lower deck. "The Queen, God Bless Her". This form of the Loyal Toast is unique to the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines; the other services say only, "The Queen".

In summary, the Tot Club's Daily Toasts are as follow:

1. Sunday.................Absent Friends and Those at Sea
2. Monday................Our Ships at Sea
3. Tuesday................Our Friends
4. Wednesday...........Ourselves! As no one else is liable to consider themselves with our welfare.
5. Thursday...............A Bloody War and a Sickly Season. A Bloody war and a Quick Promotion.
6. Friday...................A Willing Foe and Sea Room
7. Saturday...............Sweethearts And Wives - May they never meet!

All are followed by "The Queen, God Bless Her".

THE MISMUSTER:

In the Royal Navy the Mismuster was an issue of rum given to an individual who had, through no fault of his own, missed the main rum issue. In the Tot Club a Mismuster is sometimes called when a Member is late through no fault of his own or in the event of a special celebration. 

The Member wishing to call the Mismuster must first seek approval for the Mismuster from Tot Club Officers present. Once this has been obtained, he or she must then approach each member present to invite him to join in the Mismuster. The person calling the Mismuster is required to drink a full Tot; all others accepting the Mismuster are allowed up to half a Tot. 

When everyone has their rum the Steward will call for those partaking to "Cleanse your palate, please", he will then hand over to the person calling the Mismuster to explain his or her reason for doing so. he or she then proposes the stand-by toast, "To The Wind That Blows, The Ship That Goes, And The Lass That Loves A Sailor. And, The Queen, God Bless Her!" This is always the same, irrespective of the day.

BLACK MASS: 

"Black Mass" is celebrated on Sundays. It originated from the Senior Rates' rum issue in the Royal Navy. A typical issue for a mess of, say, 26 men, would be for the messman to collect the rum issue for the whole mess. If everyone in the mess was "G" (i.e. they were all Grog and not "U" - under age (under 20), "T" - temperance, or "R.A." - rationed ashore) and no-one had had their tot stopped for medical or punishment reasons, then the issue would be three two (i.e.. 3 pints, 2 tots) as each tot was 1/8 of a pint or half a gill. The issue was exact. This resulted in the last man having a short tot, as with the best will in the world there was bound to be the odd drip and, of course, the rum would also coat the tot measure and rum fanny *

To overcome this, typically a tot of water would be added in the mess for every pint of rum. There was now some left over. This was known as the "Queen's", as it didn't belong to anyone and was considered to be the property of the Crown. This was usually illegally bottled and kept until the following Sunday when a discreet notice on the mess notice board would announce that "Black Mass" would be celebrated at a certain time. Anyone in the mess at the appointed time would be entitled to an equal portion of the "Queen's" .

The toast at Black Mass is always the same, consisting solely of  "The Queen, God Bless Her"

* The word "Fanny" in the Royal Navy denotes any largish tin or metal container. The name came from the time of the first issues of tinned, or canned, food in 1820. The main victualling yard was at Deptford on the River Thames near London, and one of the first issues coincided with the particularly gruesome murder of a seven year old girl called Fanny Adams. Sailors believed that her body was chopped up and processed with the rest of their food and issued in tins which became known as 'Fanny Adams' or 'Fannys'.

THE FOLLOWING IS FOR INFORMATION OF ASPIRING MEMBERS

The Tot Club has been granted permission to wear the White Ensign of the Royal Navy on the Dockyard flagstaff on certain occasions during the year. These are as follows:

16th January (1780) First Battle of Cape St. Vincent. Admiral Sir George Rodney. Out of thirteen Spanish ships, only four ships of the line and two frigates escaped. The rest were sunk, burnt or destroyed.

14th February (1797) Second Battle of Cape St. Vincent. Admiral Sir John Jervis. Commodore Horatio Nelson, second in command, in H.M.S. Captain, 74, boarded and carried the Spanish San Nicolas, 80, and then the Spanish San Josef, 112. Nelson described this action as his "patent bridge for capturing enemies". Jervis was made Earl St. Vincent and Nelson was knighted.

2nd April (1801) Battle of Copenhagen.

12th April (1782) Battle of the Saintes. Admiral Sir George Rodney. Sir Samuel Hood, second in command. This prevented the French landing an army in Jamaica. It was also the first time the tactic of breaking the enemies' line and subsequently crossing the "T" was deliberately adopted.

21st April (1926) Birthday of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.

1st June (1794)  Admiral Lord Richard Howe ("Black Dick"). "The Glorious 1st of June". Tactically, a great victory as Howe took six prizes and sank a seventh, without loss to the English. Strategically a victory for the French as the convoy the warships were protecting made France with a cargo of American grain and relieved a famine.

2nd June (1953)  Coronation of H.M. Queen Elizabeth II.

1st August (1798) Battle of The Nile.

11th October (1797) Battle of Camperdown. Admiral Adam Duncan. First Fleet action after the mutinies of Spithead and the Nore,  in which the Dutch, who had been forced to join Napoleon, were heavily defeated off Camperdown on the coast of Holland.

21st October (1805) Battle of Trafalgar.

Tot Club Officers and their V.H.F. call signs are as follows:

The remainder of the Full Members are:

Andy Burridge, Tim Degarve, Roger Gardiner, Bob Hackett, Henk Hagelstein, Philip Owen, Darren Thompson.

Prospective new members should make a point of reading the rules of the Club during their probationary period. These are known as the "Standard Operating Procedures", a copy of which is normally to be found in the Tot Club register book.

All new members will be charged a basic joining fee of EC$100. (Editor's Note: the equivalent of approximately US$ 37.50) In the case of Overseas Members this includes  their first year's membership. All new members receive a T-shirt relevant to their type of membership. If this shirt is worn at Saturday tot they will receive their tot for EC$3 instead of the normal EC$5. Any new member joining is expected to call a Mismuster.

E-mail: totclub@candw.ag