Another rum do

SIR: May I add, perhaps, a final story about rum issue in the Royal Navy (Olden Life: What Was the Daily Tot?, December 2016 issue)? My father was a petty officer serving on the battleship HMS Howe during the Second World War and included in his duties was the need to distinguish between those sailors who were entitled to a tot of rum and those who declined ‘to draw their tot’, or were too young. His question to one sailor: ‘Do you draw or not?’ was met with the reply: ‘No, but I sketch a little’. Ken Langridge, Alicante, Spain.