Stupid People Tricks

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Corpse in the cask

In the age of exploration and empire, Europeans could be found all over the globe, exploring, trading, or waging war. Inevitably, some died far from home. Rich and/or prominent people could hardly be buried in some far-flung corner remote from Civilization, so their bodies had to be brought home. Since there was no refrigeration, the only way of keeping the body preserved on the long journey home was to put it in a barrel of alcohol. Naturally, stories of people consuming the alcohol, wittingly or unwittingly, arose very soon afterwards.

The most famous incident involved Admiral Horatio Nelson, who was killed at the battle of Trafalgar in 1805. His body was placed in a barrel of brandy (not rum). When they reached Gibraltar, the brandy was replaced by wine. When they got back to England and opened the cask to get Lord Nelson's body out for the state funeral, it was seen that the barrel was only half full. Although evaporation could probably account for this, it was commonly thought that sailors in the crew had been drawing off the odd cupful during the journey.

Debunked: Folks find casks of wine in cellar of old house. Tap and drank from several of them. Later, preserved body found in cask.

In TCD, Brunvand quotes an English version, in which the new owners of a Georgian/Regency house discover a dozen or so huge barrels in the cellar. They decide to cut them in halves to use as planters. One is found to contain Jamaican rum, so they use that for drinking, making rum-flavoured desserts, and generally having a ball. When the barrel appears to be empty, they cut that one in half to make planters too, to find the preserved corpse of a colonial planter.

Other versions have, for instance, the barrel of wine in which the body of Gen. Pakenham was put after the battle of New Orleans in 1815 being diverted to S Carolina and the contents served at a celebration dinner.

Documented: Nautical saying: "Tapping the Admiral" is based on the above.

"Tapping the Admiral" meant surreptitious drinking in Royal Navy slang. Standard practice involved stashing booze in a coconut from which the milk had been drained, but sticking a straw into a small hole in a cask and drinking happened too.

As with the origins of most slang, it cannot be definitively linked to a specific incident. However, nobody has found any indication that the phrase was used prior to 1805, and nobody has any other explanation, and therefore it is extremely probable that Nelson's journey home and the half-empty barrel found thereafter is the origin of the phrase.