[Old Teufel Hunden]

I don’t know anything about the Pogues, but that quote comes from Winston Churchill. He had said don’t talk to me about Naval tradition, it’s nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash. And he was quite right!!

[MeganC]

Churchill had been First Sea Lord so he was quite qualified to make that statement.

Semper Fi

[decimon]

He had said don’t talk to me about Naval tradition, it’s nothing but rum, sodomy and the lash. And he was quite right!!

Or it was, "Rum, sodomy, prayers and the lash." Or he made no such statement: http://www.thisdayinquotes.com/2010/08/rum-sodomy-and-lash-winston-churchills.html

"According to Montague-Browne, Churchill responded: “I never said it. I wish I had.”

Langworth notes that “rum, sodomy and the lash” is similar to “rum, bum and bacca” — a catchphrase from an old saying about the, er, pastimes of British sailors, dating back to the 1800s: “Ashore it’s wine, women and song; aboard it’s rum, bum and concertina.” (Bum = a man’s rear end; bacca = tobacco.)

At any rate, it seems that attributing a quotation about rum, sodomy and the lash to Winston Churchill is nothing but an old British naval tradition."