Rumor is that the Captain was of Irish Descent....

What a Grand ol' Navy It Was.....

The following tale is from the history of the oldest commissioned warship in
the world, the USS Constitution. It comes by way of the National Park
Service, as printed in "Oceanographic Ships, Fore and Aft", a periodical
from the oceanographer of the US Navy.

On 23 August 1779, the USS Constitution set sail from Boston, loaded with
475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of water, 74,000 cannon shot, 11,500
pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum. Her mission: to destroy
and harass English shipping.

On 6 October, she made Jamaica, took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300
gallons of rum. Three weeks later, Constitution reached the Azores, where
she provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 2,300 gallons of Portuguese wine.

On 18 November, she set sail for England where her crew captured and
scuttled 12 English merchant vessels and took aboard their rum. By this
time, Constitution had run out of shot. Nevertheless, she made her way
unarmed up the Firth of Clyde for a night raid. Here, her landing party
captured a whiskey distillery, transferred 13,000 gallons aboard and headed
for home.

On 20 February 1780, the Constitution arrived in Boston with no cannon
shot, no food, no powder, no rum and no whiskey. She did, however, still
carry her crew of 475 officers and men and 18,600 gallons of water.
The math is quite enlightening: Length of cruise:181 days Booze
consumption: 1.26 gallons per man per day (this does NOT include the
unknown quantify of rum captured from the 12 English merchant vessels in
November)

Naval historians say that the re-enlistment rate from this cruise was 92%.