The Games of War

Bug Juice is the universal Navy slang for the highly concentrated, synthetically flavored drink powder served in shipboard mess decks. The beverage typically resembles Kool-Aid and comes in various neon colors, most notably lime green and cherry red. Regardless of the color in the dispenser, every batch tastes exactly the same: sugary, slightly sour, and intensely artificial.

Why Sailors Drink It
Maintaining a fresh diet at sea is a constant challenge for modern naval crews. While supply ships routinely replenish fleets in the middle of the ocean, fresh fruits and vegetables rot within the first couple of weeks in storage. This nutritional gap is even wider for submarine crews, who must packed every square inch of their cramped walkways with canned rations to survive up to 90 days completely cut off from the world.

Once the fresh food spoils, crews rely entirely on shelf-stable rations that completely lack natural vitamins. Because the human body cannot produce or store Vitamin C, a diet without it would quickly trigger scurvy, a devastating disease that breaks down tissues and reopens old wounds. The Navy serves Bug Juice because the powder never spoils, requires minimal storage space, and instantly delivers the vital nutrients needed to keep a crew healthy on long voyages.

Why It Cleans Metal
While completely safe for human consumption, the powder contains heavy concentrations of ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) and citric acid. These natural ingredients are highly effective at breaking down iron oxide and oxidation. Because maritime environments are prone to heavy corrosion from saltwater, sailors regularly use leftover batches from the mess decks to strip hull rust, brighten dull shipboard brass, and clean out deck drains.

Long before she became one of the most decorated women of World War II, Nancy Wake had already declared war on N**i tyranny.

Born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, Wake was working as a journalist in Europe during the 1930s when she witnessed the rise of fascism firsthand. The brutality she observed left a lasting impression and convinced her that neutrality was impossible. After marrying wealthy French businessman Henri Fiocca, she found herself living in France just as Europe descended into war.

When the Germans occupied France, Wake refused to stand by.

Using her social connections, confidence, and remarkable nerve, she became deeply involved in resistance activities. She helped smuggle Allied airmen, escaped prisoners, and Jewish refugees out of occupied territory, guiding them through secret routes to safety. Her network became so effective that German authorities considered her one of their most dangerous enemies.

The Gestapo hunted her relentlessly.

Unable to catch her, they nicknamed her “The White Mouse” because she seemed to disappear whenever their traps closed around her. As the danger intensified, Wake eventually escaped to Britain, where she joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE), the secret organization tasked with supporting resistance movements across occupied Europe.

There she trained in sabotage, explosives, weapons handling, and guerrilla warfare.

In 1944, with the Allied invasion of France approaching, Wake parachuted back into occupied territory to work with Resistance fighters in the Auvergne region. What followed was a campaign of relentless disruption against German forces. She coordinated supply drops, organized thousands of resistance fighters, directed sabotage operations, and helped launch attacks on German communications and transport networks.

One of her most extraordinary feats occurred when a critical radio link failed. Rather than risk the collapse of communications, Wake mounted a bicycle and rode more than 300 kilometers through enemy-controlled territory to restore contact between resistance cells and Allied command.

By the time France was liberated, Nancy Wake had become one of the most effective resistance leaders in occupied Europe.

After the war, she received numerous honors, including the French Croix de Guerre, the British George Medal, and the American Medal of Freedom. Yet perhaps her greatest achievement was something no medal could fully capture.

At a time when N**i Germany seemed unstoppable, Nancy Wake chose resistance over fear, action over silence, and courage over safety.

The Gestapo spent years trying to catch the White Mouse.

They never did.

Sir Francis Drake died at age 56 on the night of January 28, 1596, aboard his flagship Defiance, anchored off Portobelo harbour on the coast of Panama, after dysentery ravaged his final disastrous expedition to the West Indies. His last voyage had been a catastrophic failure from the start, with the Spanish prepared for his arrival at every turn, and the disease swept through his fleet, killing crew members by the dozens, including Drake's lifelong second cousin, Admiral Sir John Hawkins, who died weeks earlier.

When Drake realized death was near, he made one final request that captured everything about his larger-than-life reputation as England's greatest sea captain and Spain's most hated pirate.

He asked to be dressed in his full suit of armour, the kind of theatrical gesture you'd expect from a man who circumnavigated the globe, captured Spanish treasure ships worth fortunes, helped defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588, and earned a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth I for his privateering exploits. The next morning his crew honored his wish, encased his armoured body in a sealed lead-lined coffin, and committed him to the sea off Buenaventura Island near Porto Bello where Drake had requested burial on land but received a sailor's funeral instead.

The lead coffin disappeared beneath Caribbean waters along with two of Drake's ships, the Elizabeth and the Delight, which were deliberately scuttled in Portobelo Bay days after the burial to prevent them from falling into Spanish hands.

For over 400 years treasure hunters, marine archaeologists, pirate enthusiasts, and adventurers have searched the seabed off Panama trying to locate what they call Drake's Lead Coffin, convinced it holds not just the remains of one of history's most famous mariners but possibly clues to hidden treasure Drake may have stashed away during his decades of plundering Spanish gold and silver.

In 2011, businessman and former Philadelphia 76ers president Pat Croce invested hundreds of thousands of dollars leading an expedition that discovered two burnt-out shipwrecks lying perpendicular to each other in what he dubbed "Drake's alcove," ships that matched the description of the Elizabeth and Delight. The team used sophisticated remote sensing equipment to scan for Drake's coffin near the wrecks, discovering several anomalies and hotspots that might indicate the location of the lead casket, but the expedition ultimately proved unsuccessful and Croce pledged to return.

The Victorian Royal Navy attempted to find Drake in 1883, and multiple researchers including Michael Turner who documented his quest on the website In Drake's Wake have made dives searching for the coffin that many believe sits buried deep in sand just beyond the mouth of Portobelo Bay.

The mystery endures partly because nobody knows exactly why Drake received such an unusual burial in a lead-lined coffin when common seamen including his own crew members were simply sewn into canvas shrouds and dropped overboard. Some speculate the lead casing was meant to preserve his body for eventual return to England for a hero's burial like Admiral Nelson would receive centuries later, though Drake never made it home. Others wonder if the coffin contains more than just Drake's armoured remains, pointing out that a privateer who spent decades capturing Spanish treasure might have hidden away a personal cache that not even Queen Elizabeth knew about.

The Panamanian authorities support search expeditions in principle, and some researchers argue for scientific examination that could reveal Drake's height, blood group, DNA, and confirm the disease that killed him through fiber optic cameras if the coffin has leaked over four centuries underwater.

Most ordinary people in Devon and Cornwall support the idea of repatriation if the coffin is ever found, though the British Admiralty has remained neutral on whether Drake should be brought home or left undisturbed in his Caribbean grave.

For now the lead coffin rests somewhere on the ocean floor off Panama, another needle in a haystack that continues to captivate anyone who loves the romance of exploration, piracy, and unsolved maritime mysteries.

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