Who Said Sailors Can't Drink?

The U.S.S. Constitution (Old Ironsides), as a combat vessel, carried 48,600gallons of fresh water for her crew of 475 officers and men.
This was sufficient to last six months of sustained operations at sea.
She carried no evaporators (i.E. fresh water distillers).

However, let it be noted that according to her ship's log, " On July 27, 1798, the U.S.S. Constitution sailed from Boston with a full complement of 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of fresh water, 7,400 cannon shot, 11,600 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum."

Her mission: " To destroy and harass English shipping."

Making Jamaica on 6 October, she took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum.

Then she headed for the Azores, arriving there 12 November. She provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 64,300 gallons of Portuguese wine.

On 18 November, she set sail for England..In the ensuing days she defeated five British men-of-war and captured and scuttled 12 English merchant ships, salvaging only the rum aboard each.

By 26 January, her powder and shot were exhausted. 'Nevertheless, although unarmed she made a night raid up the Firth of Clyde in Scotland.' Her landing party captured a whisky distillery and transferred 40,000 gallons of single malt Scotch aboard by dawn. Then she headed home.

The U.S.S. Constitution arrived in Boston on 20 February 1799, with no cannaon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no wine, no whisky and 38,600 gallons of water.

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I can not attest to the accuracy of this story but it is a fun read. I found it on another site and also Googled the info, it was listed as a little known fact though other sites call it a fable, it is still fun.

Wikipidia shows that the USS Consitution carried 47,265 gallons of water and 5,074 of spirits. This is a ten percent ratio that I may recommend, assuming our boats carry roughly 80 Gallons of fresh water, 8 gallons of spirits would be the minimum to avoid mutiny. For those of you slow with math that would be 84 cans of beer or 14 sixpacks as a minmum. Also consider your individual crews tendancy to be mutinous and adjust accordingly. You may wish to substitute wine or hard spirits to conserve storage space and reduce the load on the holding tank.