Scurvy: The Disease of Discovery by J. Lamb is actually quite interesting.

Once I worked in a very informal lab and we were always looking for alternatives to buying industrial chemicals. I was working with optics, and Everclear came up as a good alternative to denatured alcohol or isopropyl alcohol. My friend who ran a microscope lab said it was pure enough to clean optics... however, since it was illegal to buy in California, we had a friend pick it up in Arizona and drop it off with us.

We put it in the flammable storage cabinet with a label saying it was 95% alcohol. Once during a lab inspection we tried to explain, but the inspector just said "yes, I went to college"

Of course, the sailors probably didn't drink anything terribly high-end.

I concur, I tried to acquire the taste for 151 in college and even after 4 years of earnest and consistent effort it did not get better. Similar experiments with Everclear and overproof grappa were also unsuccessful.

I would not recommend any of these if one is interested in a pleasant drinking experience.

Lately I've been finding Bourbon to be enjoyable. Woodford Reserve and Bulleit are well-priced and good introductions in my opinion.

Also try Buffalo Trace, it's one of my three favorite including the two you mentioned.

Would you suggest the regular Buffalo Trace or one of their (many) variations?

And it wasn't always rum. If a vessel was on foreign service and rum was unavailable then the crew would be issued an equivalent amount of other booze.