Apparently each sailor was given a pint of rum each day. Since the rum was 95.5 proof, each sailor was given the alcoholic equivalent of 12.7 shots of Bacardi Superior. Did they drink it mostly within a certain period of the day, or was it spread out over three meals? Wouldn't this mean they were essentially constantly buzzed?
Side note, before the rum ration, they were given a gallon of beer. What alcohol percentage was the beer generally?
Sailors in the Royal Navy weren't given a full imperial pint of Rum a day, they were given about an eighth of a pint at midday every day. For ratings below Petty Officer the rum was watered down at a ratio of two to one to make Grog.
A Standard imperial pint is ~568ml, an eighth of a pint therefore is ~71ml. Here in Canada the government determines how much alcohol is contained in a standard drink, according to the government it's ~17ml of pure alcohol. At 95.5 proof, the rum ration contained ~38ml of pure alcohol or about 2.2 "standard drinks."
The NHS defines one unit of alcohol as 10ml of pure alcohol and estimates that on average (this varies slightly due to differences in build) it takes about one hour for the human body to completely digest one unit of alcohol (such that there is no longer any alcohol in the bloodstream). If we work with there estimates it should take on average three hours and forty-eight minutes to process a full Rum Ration, far from being buzzed throughout the day.
Ultimately the Rum Ration was scrapped by the Royal Navy in 1970 due to concerns for sailors operating complex and dangerous machinery, both from the immediate effects of being drunk enough to fail a breathalyser test and hand tremors caused by the regular long term consumption of alcohol.
It's worth noting that the abolition of the Rum Ration in the Royal Navy did not immediately end the practice in other commonwealth navies. The Royal Canadian Navy abolished the Rum Ration in 1972 and the Royal New Zealand Navy continued to issue Rum Rations until 1990.