Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

What exactly is Pol Acker?

Traveler Nina

By Traveler Nina,
in Cunard Line

 Share

Recommended Posts

Piton1

Piton1

Posted
Posted

I think it is a frenchman's idea of a joke. Really, with all the word games going on in the various threads I started thinking of the Acker. Maybe it is really P.O. Lacker, which really means lacquer-a clear varnish consisting of

shellac or gum resins dissolved in alcohol.

 

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites
patwell

patwell

Posted
Posted
I think it is a frenchman's idea of a joke. Really, with all the word games going on in the various threads I started thinking of the Acker. Maybe it is really P.O. Lacker, which really means lacquer-a clear varnish consisting of

shellac or gum resins dissolved in alcohol.

 

Paul

 

WOW Paul...I believe you have answered the question about what Pol really is. Varnish....who knew?:rolleyes:

 

Cheers, Penny

Penny’s Affair to Remember QM2 Review

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=471053

November 10,2007...the “Affair” continues....

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Wadadli1

Wadadli1

Posted
Posted
Man! Talk about keeping on topic! Paul! You da man! Now I'm really grossed out!

 

So did they have Pol Acker on the Labor Day for the Americans who probably wouldn't know better?

 

Karie,

who would now! :eek:

 

They sure did! Did you see the honorary picture of it in the review of the voyage? Wow, what a drink!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Wadadli1

Wadadli1

Posted
Posted
And here I thought any service problems in dining were due to all the dining stewards out polishing the railings.. Oh yeah, they were- with Pol Acker!

 

Karie

 

I think the mystery of the sporadic service has been solved....

 

....and without Detective Happyscot! Imagine that! ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
patwell

patwell

Posted
Posted
You have noticed how all the outdoor railings are so shiny haven't you?:D

 

Paul

 

Brilliant!! All the leftover bottles of PA....just recycle them. What a money saver!!

 

Cheers, Penny

Penny’s Affair to Remember QM2 Review

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=471053

 

November 10,2007...the “Affair” continues....

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Piton1

Piton1

Posted
Posted
Brilliant!! All the leftover bottles of PA....just recycle them. What a money saver!!

 

Cheers, Penny

Penny’s Affair to Remember QM2 Review

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=471053

 

November 10,2007...the “Affair” continues....

 

We really are talking about Carnival beancounters aren't we? :)

 

Paul

Link to comment
Share on other sites
pnhmrk

pnhmrk

Posted
Posted
WOW Paul...I believe you have answered the question about what Pol really is. Varnish....who knew?:rolleyes:

 

You have noticed how all the outdoor railings are so shiny haven't you?:D

 

Can't be the PA on the rails - that stuff would strip varnish, not make it shiny:(

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cruachan

Cruachan

Posted
Posted

There is of course another theory around the origin of the famous drink.

 

There is some evidence to suggest that the drink was, in fact, invented by a Victualling Petty Officer at the Royal William Victualling Yard at Stonehouse, Plymouth during the Napoleonic Wars. It seems that, due to the lengthy periods that ships of the line were required to spend on station whilst enforcing the blockade of the ports along the Iberian Peninsula and the resulting enormous increase in sea time, the Navy was faced with a serious shortage of the fleet’s primary fuel - navy rum. The Petty Officer in question, who was a man of some considerable initiative, produced a substitute using whatever materials he had to hand - paint stripper, methylated spirits, metal polish, fermented cat’s urine, and such. There is some genealogical evidence to suggest that a number of Sir Martin’s ancestors may have been pressed into the Royal Navy at this time to ensure a suitable supply of the last item.

 

Sadly for its inventor the resulting drink proved unacceptable to the Board of Admiralty. In terms of its general potability, the sailors of Nelson’s Navy were reported to have said that it had a good nose and an interesting bouquet; some also remarked that, whilst it was yet young, they were amused by it’s presumption, and there was general approval for it’s unique sparkling nature. Unfortunately, however, it was discovered that any accidental spillage from the casks in the hold rapidly burned its way through the oak planking of the hull and out through the copper sheathing. At the time, the damage was described as being significantly worse than that inflicted by the shipworm Teredo navalis. Sadly, several of the ships involved in the sea trial of the new beverage foundered as a result of the damage inflicted, the crew having already been rendered senseless by the deleterious effects of the drink itself with the result that they were effectively incapable of carrying out any corrective action.

 

The sea trial was abandoned, and the unexpended portion of the original production batch lay in a Royal Navy depot for many many years (along with the original recipe), until Cunard were taken over by Carnival. Carnival, in their search for a cheap champagne substitute to foist on unsuspecting passengers on their newly acquired Cunard ships are reputed to have come into possession of these stocks along with the original recipe, but how this came about has never been satisfactorily established. There is, however, some circumstantial evidence to suggest that some long term residents of the CC Message Board Floataway Lounge may have had a hand in this and that it may have been done as a form of revenge for the generally low regard in which they were held by certain members of the Cunard Board ("message" that is not "management"). Production of the drink resumed in strict accordance with the original recipe, but the Carnival marketing team are reputed to have had enormous difficulty in devising a suitable name, until someone suggested naming the drink after its inventor. There was general agreement that to name the drink after a Royal Navy Petty Officer would impart a suitably nautical cachet to the finished product, but sadly, a clerical error resulted in the first production run being incorrectly labelled. In view of the fact that the unit price of the drink itself was 0.000001 pence per litre and that the label for each litre bottle cost 5p, it was decided that it would not be cost effective to re-program the label printing software so the misspelled name was adopted as standard and has now become a household name.

 

And the name of the inventor, so scurrilously ignored by history? A man condemned to eternal anonymity by the parsimony of the Carnival management and the unfortunate typographical error of a slapdash keyboard operator who inadvertently concatenated his rank abbreviation with first letter of his surname.

 

Well of course he was none other than P.O. Lacker.

 

 

Jimmy

Link to comment
Share on other sites
KarenR_UK

KarenR_UK

Posted
Posted

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-60399748.html:eek:

 

"The Mirror (London, England); 3/27/1999; Curran, Tim; 220 words; There's no substitute for champagne, but some sparkling wines come pretty close. This week's top choice is one of the best I've tasted for under a fiver. Pol Acker Chardonnay Brut Premium Sparkling Wine, Caves de Wissembourg (Safeway, pounds 1 off at pounds 3.99 until April 3). This fresh, fruity"

 

looks like it won a silver medal for something in 1998

http://www.chardonnay-du-monde.com/Fr/Result/fr/Result1998/Result98-france.html

its in French, but the line "Pol Acker (VMQ) Brut 0." does translate (according to Google) as "Pol. Acker (VMQ) Gross (:rolleyes: ) 0"

 

(English translation of the page at http://www.chardonnay-du-monde.com/fr/Result/en/Result1998/Result98-france-Ag.html)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
patwell

patwell

Posted
Posted

Again I stand in awe....fine historical data from Jimmy....excellent work sir...commendations shall be sent forthwith...or is that henceforth...I do get confused by those forths sometimes.

 

And then to have HS verify the accuracy of this historical data...well...I am just speechless with admiration.;)

 

And to cap it all off with geneological references...how much more authentic can we get.

 

And not only that, but Jimmy seems to have solved our never ending problem of Sir maritn and why he is such an albatross around our necks.....it's in his genes!!!

 

You cousins over there have been mightily busy this morning...do any of you have real jobs that you get paid for???;)

 

Cheers, Penny

Penny’s Affair to Remember QM2 Review

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=471053

 

November 10,2007...the “Affair” continues....

Link to comment
Share on other sites
travel-to-go

travel-to-go

Posted
Posted
Again I stand in awe....fine historical data from Jimmy....excellent work sir...commendations shall be sent forthwith...or is that henceforth...I do get confused by those forths sometimes.

 

Sir maritn and why he is such an albatross around our necks.....it's in his genes!!!

 

It's more the Fifths that get me confused!

(For the brit cousins, a Fifth is approximately a liter of alcohol)

As for Sir Martin! There's your answer! If he's in jeans, he won't be allowed on board!

 

Karie,

who has tied things up rather nicely, don't you think?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
happyscot

happyscot

Posted
Posted

You cousins over there have been mightily busy this morning...do any of you have real jobs that you get paid for???;)

 

 

I'm a masseur for a fine Shakespearian actor. Aye, there's the rub. However, next week I start a new job selling left-handed screwdrivers.

 

No, I'm only joking. But I get paid well for it. It's time I owned up - I wrote the scripts for The Office - Gerry - you may have heard of me?

 

Oh all right. I work for the Government. I'm a spy.

 

No, I work in an office. It's very boring, this isn't, you figure it out.................. My sole remaining purpose is to get promoted to a level where I have absolutely nothing to do. Half-way there.

 

So, rugby world cup then - who'd have thought England would be even crappier than Scotland?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cruachan

Cruachan

Posted
Posted
Who would have guessed that Paul Lacker was one of our colonial cousins. Was he deported from Europe for his crime?

 

David

 

David,

 

That is extremely interesting. However, and I do not wish to pour cold water on the theory, I fear that there is little if any chance of a direct familial connection, and even less of deportation.

 

It seems that, unable to bear the pain and injustice of his disgraceful treatment at the hands of the Board of Admiralty, Lacker sought a solitary life of obscurity and reclusion somewhere deep in the wilds of darkest Perthshire. All that is known with any degree of certainty of his subsequent history is that he took heavily to drinking and indulging in substances that, even in those comparatively under-legislated times, were regarded as illegal.

 

He died a broken-hearted pauper, crushed by the forces of the establishment of the ungrateful country to which, for so long, he had devoted his life and his energies. Curiously, though, when the night is dark and cold and the wind whistles through the thatch, tales are still told in rural Perthshire of this strange English incomer and his drunken babblings about his fantastic invention. He is rumoured to have struck up a relationship with a local girl who moved into his hovel as a live-in-lover (or "bidie-in" to use the local vernacular). Perthshire folklore has it that their union, strange as it was and unlikely as it sounds, was blessed by progeny.

 

Of the unfortunate Petty Officer little trace now remains, but, amidst all the rumour, innuendo, local gossip, half-truths, and downright lies, one salient and incontrovertible fact stands out. Recorded in the parish records of a small Perthshire town (the name of which, for reasons that will become clear, I cannot reveal), and accessible e’en now to anyone who cares to make the effort to look, is a note written in immaculate copper-plate handwriting, enshrining for all time the fact that before finally departing this life, our hero (for hero he must be to anyone who has sampled his incomparable drink) changed his surname.

 

His adoptive name, in common with almost every other aspect of his strange and unfortunate life, was bizarre and, if it can be said to have any substantive meaning whatsoever, it can only be as an ironic (some would say sarcastic) aside on the contrast between his life in the Highlands of Scotland and that which he had formerly eked out in the service of His Britannic Majesty’s Royal Navy.

 

The surname he chose? Well now, that was Happyscot - but, around the village, he was always known as "Big Malkie"

 

Jimmy

Link to comment
Share on other sites
happyscot

happyscot

Posted
Posted
David,

 

The surname he chose? Well now, that was Happyscot - but, around the village, he was always known as "Big Malkie"

 

Jimmy

 

 

Thank you Jimmy for helping me to understand and come to terms with my past. This is a noble thing you are doing.

 

I trust there will now be a little more respect round here about Daddy's drink? If it was good enough for the Perthshire Happyscot-Lackers, it's certainly good enough for you lot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail Beyond the Ordinary with Oceania Cruises
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: The Widest View in the Whole Wide World
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...