"The men, of course, worked in difficult conditions, involving irregular hours, exposure, hardship and danger. These they accepted like good Scots, but under the urging of the inevitable malcontent and his friend they quarrelled with their rations, which were per man: ‘1 1/2 lb. beef; 1 lb. bread; 8 oz. oatmeal; 2 oz. barley; 2 oz. butter; 3 quarts beer; vegetables and salt’ with extra beer and a glass of rum on occasions. They wanted more beer."
— Richard Aldington, on the cause of a strike by the men building Bell Rock Lighthouse, 1807-1811, in Portrait of a Rebel: The Life and Work of Robert Louis Stevenson
