Interesting! I had heard that the rum ration was still issued up to the 1950s but didn't realise it lasted until 1970.
Just to clarify though, while the rum ration is no longer issued, alcohol is still available on British warships as it is in the navies of many Commonwealth nations. They are not "dry ships" like the US Navy has been (still is as far as I know).
Every mess onboard has alcohol for sale, the old joke is that each sailor is allowed beer allocated as "two cans, per man, per day... perhaps!"
It should be noted that this joke also persists across the other branches of the military in many Commonwealth nations (I heard it a number of times about the Army when I was in the Australian Army Reserve in the 1980s-90s).
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