bintananth
behind a desk
Funny thing about that statement of Che Guevara's ... during the Age of Sail the RN basically ran on beer and rum. Parliament was "drunk driving a superpower".
A British post Captain with orders to sail to the West Indies "with all possible haste" wasn't leaving Portsmouth until his ship had at least 60 butts of beer in the hold.
That's about what the crew of a sixth-rate armed with 9 pounders would need just to avoid dehydration while crossing the Atlantic. The Captain would also be looking to make a port call as soon as the ship got to the West Indies because a) his ship is almost out of beer and b) his knowledge of what's going on in the West Indies is at least 2 months out of date.