[Alan Rawlinson]

Who remembers the daily ritual of lime juice, salt tablets ( for the workers) and , was it, Paladrin - anti Malaria tabs?

Some thought the lime juice was to stop you feeling randy!!

[James_C]

Alan,
The anti malarial tablets were called Paludrine and believe it or not are still in use today, but only it seems by shipping companies!

[Burned Toast]

Used to use the lime juice to clean the wooden chopping block, Salt tablets on the tables in both messroom and saloon,Paludrine tablets on tables also before and during your stay in malarial ports.

Ray

[stein]

Developed a taste for Rose's lime juice at sea; perfect in combination with Vodka, but nice with only water on hot summer days.

[Cisco]

Salt tablet dispenser on the bulkhead.... next to iced water machine...

[Cisco]

lime juice to stop you feeling randy? I think it has just started to work..........

[Supergoods]

Brocklebanks used fresh Indian limes when available, but usually well watered down in the interests of economy.
I could never take the salt tablets, salt tablet down=sick as a dog.
Ian

[Burned Toast]

Originally Posted by stein

Developed a taste for Rose's lime juice at sea; perfect in combination with Vodka, but nice with only water on hot summer days.

BOT Lime Juice, Rose's lime juice sold in slop chest with other cordials.

[waldziu]

Paludrine, were on a dish in the dinning room at lunch time. Pusers limers was avalaible for the steaming crews. Puser's cheifs (sorry cooks) put sufficent salt in the food that salt tablets were not required althouth I did have them on my first ship the Carysfort in the late 60s.

[jimthehat]

Originally Posted by Alan Rawlinson

Who remembers the daily ritual of lime juice, salt tablets ( for the workers) and , was it, Paladrin - anti Malaria tabs?

Some thought the lime juice was to stop you feeling randy!!

Alan,
Much better than lime juice on the maplebank was the saturday tot of rum.Dont think that we apps were supposed to get it ,but the chief steward was a kind chap,and we were very popular with the abs if we gave them our tot.

jim

[Alan Rawlinson]

Originally Posted by James_C

Alan,
The anti malarial tablets were called Paludrine and believe it or not are still in use today, but only it seems by shipping companies!

Hallo Jim,

Thanks for the spelling - come to think of it, Paludrine must have done a great job over the years. Sailed with a mate who had recurring Malaria, and it was not much fun...

[Alan Rawlinson]

Originally Posted by jimthehat

Alan,
Much better than lime juice on the maplebank was the saturday tot of rum.Dont think that we apps were supposed to get it ,but the chief steward was a kind chap,and we were very popular with the abs if we gave them our tot.

jim

Crikey, Jim - I think our deck crowd would have gone haywire if they got their hands on a rum ration! Must have been a generous Master? Was it Capt Mountain or later?

[lazyjohn]

Never had lime juice but alway OJ or Tom Juice on the table, with Paludrin on the side.
We used to have a help yourself box of 500 sugar coated salt tabs on the manouvering platform desk with a battered coffee pot of iced water (from the fridge flat).

Rum sounds fantastic.

[John N MacDonald]

Took the salt tablets once and spent the rest of the day speaking to god on the great white telephone!

[lakercapt]

The BOT lime juice used to be kept in the bonded locker as it had an alcohol content of 10%.
Great when mixed with Four Bells and some raw sugar.
Stopped you getting scurvy too!

[woodend]

Salt tablets and paludrin on the saloon table in E.D.'s. Lime juice went well with Gordons and iced water. I still have one as a lunch time drink of choice with lots of ice. I religiously took the daily paludrin but I collapsed on deck while on nights working cargo and came to in hospital in Takoradi. I was diagnosed with malaria and very well looked after. I have never had it again, luckily, so it obviously wasn't the recurring strain. There is still traces of it in my blood apparently so I was never allowed to give blood.

[Klaatu83]

Tradition has it that, in the old days, lime juice was dosed to British seamen in order to prevent scurvy. However, the story goes that Captains James Cook and William Bligh actually fed their crews on sour kraut for that purpose. Small wonder Bligh's crew mutinied!

[jimthehat]

Originally Posted by Alan Rawlinson

Crikey, Jim - I think our deck crowd would have gone haywire if they got their hands on a rum ration! Must have been a generous Master? Was it Capt Mountain or later?

Yup capt. Mountain started it off and when he was lost and capt .Thorne took over ,rum was still issued by the chief steward on a saturday morning at sea,often wondered if it was discontinued on white crew ships after 1954.

jim

[gordy]

Was the BOT lime juice fortified?

Memory of being sent for it by 2nd on my first deep sea watch still fresh. (Jan '67 Blue Flu's Ixion)

Chief steward mumped away saying he should have been ready for request as he knew 2nd was a big fan of it in all weathers.
He told me to come back later as it was buried away in his stores, so I returned down below thinking I'd done well bringing down 6 cold cokes.
When we did get it I was instructed on how it should be made exactly to 2nd's taste.
One teaspoonfull, six heaped teaspoons of sugar, all in a half pint china mug and stirred like a whirling dervish.
My first taste clapped my cheeks in, so I opted for the Roses, on one day consuming a whole bottle.
Constipation was not a problem

The bosun told me some cadets had used the BOT stuff neat in some poor girls Vodka when they ran out of Roses and she was a hospital case.

[John Briggs]

The lime juice was laced with bromide. That was the stuff that was meant to keep it in your trousers - never had the slightest effect.

[Robert Hilton]

Originally Posted by Klaatu83

Tradition has it that, in the old days, lime juice was dosed to British seamen in order to prevent scurvy. However, the story goes that Captains James Cook and William Bligh actually fed their crews on sour kraut for that purpose. Small wonder Bligh's crew mutinied!

I heard it was James Cook who fed his crew sauerkraut. When they refused it he announced that it was for officers only. Later he issued it,
strictly rationed, to the whole crew. I can't swear that this is true, but it should be.

[Binnacle]

Originally Posted by lakercapt

The BOT lime juice used to be kept in the bonded locker as it had an alcohol content of 10%.

Bill, BOT lime juice was indeed kept in the bond for the reason you say. It was kept in large glass bottles perhaps about a gallon size. The cork was covered in sealing wax with the BOT stamp. In my time at sea, on British ships, refusing to take anti scorbutics was an offence under the MSA and a log book entry was reqired stating offenders name and penalty imposed. On a BTC tanker in 1946, in the focsle, our only source for coldish water was from our chattis pots which hung from the awning spars, supplemented at noon daily by a bucket of cold BOT lime juice. Happy days.

[Derek Roger]

In Brocklebanks when out East we always had fresh lime juice and water at Smoko . Very refreshing and and certainly helped . That included some limes in the " Panai Bucket " during watches . There was always salt tablets at the table and also a bottle of salt tablets on the desk in the engine room .

We drank lots of tea and lots and lots of water during a watch .

The fix was very simple ; If your sweat running into the mouth did not taste salty . Take a salt tablet .
The early salt tablets were terrible to take but after a year or so they provided us with tablets that had a coating and did not have a bad taste .

Only know of 1 Brocks Engineer during my period of service who lost his life to Heat Exhaustion .

[notnila]

Derek,taste your own sweat was the rule I learned.Don't know if that was scientifically correct but it seemed to work.

[Burned Toast]

Originally Posted by jimthehat

Yup capt. Mountain started it off and when he was lost and capt .Thorne took over ,rum was still issued by the chief steward on a saturday morning at sea,often wondered if it was discontinued on white crew ships after 1954.

jim

No still getting our tot in 60s on tankers I used to swop mine for cordial, did not drink when 16 year old.

Now well

Ray