Tapping the Admiral - Corpse-Flavored Rum

If you've never heard the term "tapping the admiral", don't worry, you're not alone. Me neither. The term originates from a pretty bizarre event, which we'll go into in a moment.

First, here's a creepy little story in the form of a meme;

You're welcome.

Tales of finding a pickled corpse at the bottom of your barrel of rum are apparently nothing new. These strange and disgusting urban legends were passed around as far back as the 1500's to impart an important moral about not drinking thy neighbors booze or some shit. They were big on morals back in the day.

So you can put a face to the flavor

.

Lord Horatio Nelson, a British admiral, was mortally wounded in battle in 1805. A shot to the gut may not be a death sentence by today's standards but back in Napoleon's time (who is exactly the guy responsible for this one. Well, his people anyway) a hole in your entrails meant you're fucked.

Normally when you died at sea back then you'd be whale food, but this guy was the admiral, so his crew felt they should hang onto his corpse. My guess is they feared for their asses when they got back to Britain sans-boss. (In their defense, they did at least win the battle).

Embalming wasn't a thing back then, (they started that nonsense during the American Civil war), so to get him to England without stinking up the ship, his corpse was stuffed in a barrel of brandy.

We all know sailors were filthy drunkards, so when the non-corpsinated booze ran dry, legend says they sucked up their pride and tapped into the admiral's personal stash. Hence, "tapping the admiral" became a thing.

Fuck it.

However, a more recent tale of corpse-ale seems to have a little more credibility (according to Snopes), than your run of the mill campfire tale.



According to a Hungarian police magazine website, a construction crew made a killer discovery in the cellar of a large home recently vacated by a deceased widow. I mean; if you found a big old barrel of rum that nobody would miss, you totally wouldn't touch it, right? They say the barrel was too heavy to move, so they drained it. (By which you know I mean they got totally shit faced). They even bottled some for later and said they enjoyed the peculiar flavor.

Waste not, want not.

Upon draining the barrel though, it was still too heavy. So they cut it open, and out fell this marinated naked dude.

Apparently the guy died on vacation in Jamaica and to avoid the costs associated with transporting him overseas the legal way, the woman stuffed him in this barrel of rum and paid for that to be mailed to her. Then she kept her pickled husband in her basement for 20 years, for sentimental reasons, no doubt.

Although the publication was later pulled due to a lack of supporting evidence, it was first picked up by BBC and NBC, who excitedly published before fact checking and later posted a hilarious "oops, it was possibly total bullshit" memo to make up for it.

(I believe it)

It's ok, NBC, shit happens.

 If you enjoyed this creepy shit, +1, comment and subscribe for more.