Word Problem of the Week: Whiskey Rations Aboard Ship

There are two things I find interesting about this problem. First, the detail offered gives it a level of realism that is not typically found in these sorts of texts. On the other hand, the quantities are all represented as variables, which adds a level of abstraction. Thus, the answer gives us a formula for any possible scenario of this type. The problem is number 23 on page 479:

Word Problem of the Week(s): Classical History and Mythology

These problems come from Mathematicall Recreations, or

A Collection of many Problemes extracted out of the Ancient and Modern Philosophers, as Secrets and Experiments in Arithmatick, Geometry, Cosmographie, Horologiographie, Astronomie, Navigation, Musick, Opticks, Architecture, Staticks, Mechanicks, Chemistry, water-works, Fire-works, &c.

Basically, a seventeenth century Dangerous Book For Boys.

Several of the arithmetic questions have to do thematically with the stories of ancient Greece. These are:
Of the number of Souldiers that fought before old Troy.
Of Pythagoras his Schollers.
Of the number of Apples given amongst the Graces and the Muses.
Of the Cups of Croesus. (He gave the Temple 6 golden cups weighing a total of 600 drams, with each one a dram heavier than the next.)
Of Cupid's Apples. (The Muses steal them.)