From Grog To Joe

Your February/March “History Now” column carried a short piece about grog in the British and American navies (“The Taste Test”). You note that ”.. .the U.S. Navy abolished its grog ration in 1862.” That may apply to hard liquor, but it was Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels who eliminated alcohol altogether. Legend has it that sailors drinking coffee out of deference to the teetotaler Daniels’s orders coined the expression cup of Joe .