From exposing thighs to drinking the general's blood – the eerie tradition of the British Navy
With the formation of the anti-fascist front, since 1943, the Chinese Navy has repeatedly sent officers and soldiers to Britain, either for further training or to pick up ships, or to participate in the war. Some of them participated in battles such as the Normandy landings and the sinking of the German battleship Tirpitz, and their experiences are quite legendary.
▲ Naval officers studying in the UK take a group photo with the visiting Chinese delegation (head of the group, Wang Shijie), at the Naval Academy in Greenwich
Britain is the originator of the world's modern navy and a naval power that has dominated the ocean for a long time. During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, the Chinese Navy, which was only a fraction of its tonnage, fought extremely hard, and the ships were all sunk within a year, and the remnants could only continue to fight hard by means of laying mines and other means. After 1939, the difficulties of the Navy reached its peak, and most personnel could only distribute military uniforms to the Army. Therefore, after these naval soldiers arrived in Britain, the feelings in their hearts could be imagined.
The author has interviewed a number of old navies and their descendants who participated in the operation of picking up ships to Britain at that time, and although it has been decades, the impact of talking about Britain is still as if it was yesterday, and even those of us who live in the information age will feel shocked to hear some of the content they say.
For example, the traditions of the British Navy are somewhat dizzying.
▲ As a generation of maritime overlords with a long history, the traditions of the British Navy give people the impression of elegance, elegance and culture
The Chinese Navy also studied under the British Navy in the beiyang admiralty era, so some royal naval traditions entered the navy of this oriental country, and some people even joked that officers like Chen Shaokuan, the minister of the navy during the War of Resistance, would go to drink coffee as soon as they got off the ship, and the whole group of yellow-skinned British gentlemen.
And when the brethren arrived in England and saw the real Royal Navy, they understood that this little resemblance was just a fur, and many strange traditions of the Royal Navy were really not seen and not known, and they were shocked to see it.
A Chinese naval officer who interned on the Battlecruiser Prestige recalled that the next day after boarding the ship, when he was about to get up, he suddenly heard an officer shouting from cabin to cabin: "Show a leg!" （Show a leg）”
▲ Prestige, a meritorious ship of the Royal Navy, in 1940 had a single-ship battle against two German battlecruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisschenau, and injured the German ship and retreated, and in 1945 some Chinese naval personnel conducted navigation training on the ship
Why show a leg? Chinese who can train here know some English and understand the meaning, but why the British officers made this request, they really did not understand. Even if you want to find someone, it should be "Show ur face", look at the legs, can you recognize who it is?
▲ Even if it is Fan Ye, it is not enough to recognize the legs, right?
It is said that there is a joke that when the war is over, the general asks the soldier how he behaved in this battle, and the soldier replies in a loud voice: "Rushing into the enemy trench, I saw an enemy officer, and I cut off his legs with a knife!" The general praised the warrior's bravery, and then asked in confusion, "Why don't you cut off his head?" ”
"Report General!" The soldier said, "Because that guy didn't have a head at the time." ”
Could it be that the British Navy is also such a guy who doesn't look at his head?
When the soldiers of the Chinese Navy were hesitating whether to show a certain thigh, the British comrades saw the clues and explained to them, only to know that this sentence was just a synonym for "getting up" on the British warship.
Why do you use such a strange sentence to get up? It turned out that ancient British warships were allowed to bring their girlfriends on board for the night. Warships must get up on time every morning to roll call, and these private or public "girlfriends" are certainly not in the military, and naturally do not need to get up according to military orders every morning. Inevitably, some of the sailors were too lazy to get up, and the officers had to pull them out of the hammocks one by one.
But there are not only sailors in the hammock, and it is completely impossible to distinguish between men and women under the sheets. British naval officers all called themselves gentlemen, and the bed of the lady was obviously not civilized enough (it is also said that the British prostitutes at that time were very angry, and the officers of the Royal Navy could not resist). How, then, is it to ensure that every sailor is called up without offending the ladies?
The clever officers would patrol and shout at the people under the sheets: "Show a leg!" "If the other party shows a bare leg, ignore it, if it is a hairy leg, it will slap it and urge the other party to get up." The reason for this judgment is that the skin on the legs of women themselves is relatively smooth, and women in Britain had the habit of removing leg hair every day, so there is no doubt that the sailors with large hairy legs must be sailors.
Time flies, and the era when sailors could take women on board ships has long passed, leaving only the order of this representative to get up - "show a leg", leaving a trace of reverie for the trainers of the Chinese Navy.
This is not the most extreme, and what makes the Chinese naval personnel feel truly unacceptable is drinking the general's blood.
▲ At that time, the warship was rationed to provide support to officers and soldiers, and one of them was "Nelson's Blood".
It's a sweet wine with a high degree and a mellow taste, but the name is a little scary.
▲ Lord Horatio Nelson, the soul of the British Royal Navy, is still admired by the navies of the world to this day, can the blood of such a general be drunk?
Fortunately, it soon became clear that the ration was nothing more than a sugar cane liquor called rum. This wine is native to the Americas and has long been favored by seafarers. It appeared in Robinson Crusoe, because there was no concept of rum at that time, and it was directly called "sugar cane wine" when translated in China. However, today everyone may know the taste of this wine - many ice creams today have rum flavors.
The officers and men of the British Navy favored rum as much as any other seafarer, even as a ration (a tradition that lasted until the 1970s, when it was stopped to reduce the alcoholism of the crew), and when Nelson was commander of the fleet, of course, it was also available on warships, and even he himself should have drunk it.
▲ However, rum is not as red as blood, at most it is amber, how can it be called "Nelson's blood"?
This question was not understood until the British naval personnel explained it, Chinese, and the reason was creepy.
It turned out that this wine got this nickname, and it was really related to General Nelson. On 21 October 1805, Nelson led the LinkedIn Royal Navy to victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, defeating the combined French and Spanish fleets and forcing Napoleon to abandon his plans to land in Britain. However, the naval commander himself was also shot by a French sharpshooter and died in the naval battle.
Because Nelson was deeply loved by the officers and men of the Navy, they could not bear to bury the general in the belly of the fish, so they decided to bring his body back to the British mainland for burial. However, it was not yet winter, and it would take a week to return, and the general's body was likely to have problems on the way. At that time, there were no refrigerators on warships, so how to solve the problem of preserving the remains of the general? The Royal Navy's approach was to place the general's body in a barrel of rum. Rum has a high degree (38-50 degrees) and can protect the body like alcohol.
This method was very effective, and on October 28 the ship reached Gibraltar, and later the British held a solemn funeral for Nelson at St. Paul's Cathedral.
General Nelson was once soaked in rum, but that's not the direct reason why rum is called "Nelson's Blood." The real reason is that when General Nelson's body was soaked in a barrel, the sailors who worshipped him actually made a hole in the bottom of the barrel and drank rum mixed with the general's blood, thinking that this would absorb the courage in the general's soul...
Uh, I admit, writing this, and looking at the mild-mannered naval officers of the British Empire, the brothers always have some strange feelings :)
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