Subject: Re: Why "limeys?"
Author: "W. Ray Gibbons" <gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu>
Date: 9/23/94 9:46 AM
>On Fri, 23 Sep 1994, Duncan Bryan wrote:
>
>> PS. Why do some Americans call British people Limeys?
>
>Well, my good man, I dare say we have to call them *something*...
>
>OK, I'll be serious. The truth is this. In days of yore, after several
>months aboard ship, british sailors would notice the absence of the
>opposite sex. They would say, "Oh, I say, old chap, there are no women
>aboard," or words to that effect. After several months more, many of the
>men would become frustrated as it gradually dawned on them that something
>was missing from their lives. So the ships began to include limes in
>their stores. Many of the men came to prefer limes, and when they did
>eventually get shore leave, they would drink a mixture of lime seltzer and
>beer known as a shandy, instead of getting drunk and getting laid as the
>american sailors were wont to do. Naturally, the british sailors, and
>eventually the british in general, came to be known as limeys. But the
>term was always applied with affection, except possibly during the
>American Revolutionary War, when the americans were rather cross with the
>british.
>
> Ray Gibbons Dept. of Molecular Physiology & Biophysics
> Univ. of Vermont College of Medicine, Burlington, VT
> gibbons@northpole.med.uvm.edu (802) 656-8910
Good one, Ray. Exactly what did the sailors do with the limes?
My understanding was that sailors were given limes to eat during long voyages
to prevent scurvy. There was no other source of vitamin C available on the
voyage, and the only drink available was beer. I was reading about the early
pilgrims who came to America in the 17th century, and even the children drank
beer on the ocean voyage, since it kept better than water.
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