May 30, 2025 08:00:00

How ice cream replaced alcohol in the US Navy

Ice cream is so essential to Marines that '

ice cream barges ' were used to manufacture and transport ice cream during World War II. Former sailor and author Rick Spielman, who runs the Old Salt Blog, which covers topics such as the sea, ships, and the navy, explains how the Navy and ice cream became associated.

How Ice Cream Replaced Booze in the US Navy
https://www.oldsaltblog.com/2025/05/how-ice-cream-replaced-booze-in-the-us-navy-2/

The relationship between the Navy and ice cream dates back to General Order No. 99 , issued by Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels in 1914. Until then, drinking had been one of the few pleasures on board a ship during long voyages when there was no entertainment, but General Order No. 99 prohibited the carrying and consumption of alcoholic beverages on naval vessels and naval facilities. The US Navy abolished rum rationing in 1862 and gradually restricted the types of alcohol that sailors could drink on board, but General Order No. 99 even prohibited the serving of alcohol in officers' and captain's quarters.

Then, in 1920, Prohibition came into force across the United States, completely banning the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol for consumption. During the Prohibition era, which lasted for 13 years until 1933, criminal organizations engaged in bootlegging and tens of thousands of illegal liquor stores known as ' speakeasies ' sprang up.

During Prohibition, many American breweries converted their operations into soda and ice cream factories, which resulted in a proliferation of ice cream parlors, which became popular social gathering places. Although Prohibition became more problematic during the Great Depression and was repealed in December 1933, ice cream became the pastime and stress reliever of choice for some people, taking on the role that alcohol once held.

Even after the repeal of Prohibition during World War II, General Order 99 was still in effect, and alcohol was prohibited in the U.S. Navy. Therefore, ice cream was provided to almost all ships throughout the Western Pacific Ocean using ice cream barges. Ice cream played an important role in boosting the morale of the sailors, and it is recorded that when the aircraft carrier

Lexington was sinking after being attacked by Japanese torpedoes, the crew salvaged as much ice cream as they could from the freezers before abandoning ship.

Also, on days when the voyage went smoothly, the captain of a navy would hand out rum to the crew as a reward, called a ' tot .' The Royal Navy continued to do this until it was abolished on Black Tot Day in 1970 to prevent their hands from shaking while maneuvering the ship, but the US Navy had been abstinent from alcohol since 1914, so they gave out ice cream as a tot for their achievements. In particular, on aircraft carriers, as much as 10 to 30 gallons (about 45 to 135 liters) of ice cream were sometimes given to pilots who returned shot down or as a reward for rescued pilots.

Tom Coculco, who served in the Navy during World War II, told Recurrent Military, a media outlet organized and run by veterans, that he learned of the tradition of ice cream rewards while serving on a destroyer guarding an aircraft carrier. Coculco recalled, 'Every time we rescued a pilot and got him on board, we got 10 gallons of ice cream, which made me really happy. So we started joking around and saying, 'Let's shoot down one plane.'' He said that ice cream was a big part of his motivation at the time.