Thought there was a dedicated Captain Gone Ashore/Grog Time thread but can't find it now. The Advent thread has quite a bit on it:

“...Messieurs the people have no mercy for their servants, but goad them on, beyond their strength––and hunt them for cowards, whenever they show any signs of fatigue, or love of life. Every body can remember when it was preferred as a serious charge against a naval officer, that he stooped to dodge a chainshot!

“Hello!” continued the steward, "where dat blood for, on dog's nose? Guess you Bill British been 'noculate him for coward."

“Get out, you Hethiopian, or I'll shoot you!”

“Oh don't, now; who sarve a de grog, nigger gone to he wooden jacket?

        'When de cap’un go ashore,
        An de mate he hab de key,
        You want a nigger steward
        When it's grog time o' day.
                Grog time o' day!'”

A sharp, angry bark from the dog, and he had the soldier by the neck. He had watched him, till he saw him off his guard, and then pounced on him, like a Tiger, as he was. Immediate interference was necessary, to save the soldier's life, for the dog would most assuredly have finished him, had he been let alone. The steward was in the very ecstacy of delight—he hugged Tiger, and jumped round the forecastle, like a baboon. “Hee! choke a dam Cholo nigger! Top his weason, a brack sojer—good feller, Tiger !” The gambols of the dog and his friend had become too annoying—it was evident that it had been grog time with the steward. His eyes protruded from his head, and were, at the same time, dim with the mist with which alcohol smothers the vision.

“I tell ye, you Hethiopian, I'll shoot you, if you don't quit your monkey shines!”

        “'When a buckra man come,
        Hol ’um gun up higher,
        Tell a nigger shoot him,
        Nigger he tan fire!'

’pecially when a gun hab no powder in him! Hee!" And Ebony turned a somerset over the heel of the bowsprit.

        “'Possum up a gum tree,
        Racoon in de holler,'—….”
[Tar Brush Sketches, At Sea, by Benjamin Fiferail, Corrected Proofs, Weld, 1836]
Horatio Hastings Weld (1811–1888)


Lyr Req: Old Zip Coon
rabbit up a gummy stump poem or song?