Rations on Civilian Vessels and Obtaining Sea Provisions

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For civilian vessels, rations for common sailors shared many similarities to those of the Navy, but also several differences. Biscuits, flour, salted beef, salted pork, peas, cheese, butter, and salted fish all stood as common staples of maritime diet throughout the Atlantic world. The foods used to stock merchant vessels, privateers, whalers, fishing craft, and slave ships were similar to each other since these common maritime rations were available in many ports and could remain edible for long periods.

Civilian vessels carried a few provisions that differed to those of the Navy. One notable difference came with carrying livestock for the crew. Trying to maintain significant amounts of live animals for consumption by an entire Navy crew did occur, but the Navy needed room for their large crews numbering in the hundreds, their provisions, and the ship’s equipment and armament.

Storing a significant amount of animals for long-term sustenance of the general crew only occurred on occasion when the situation suited the purchasing and keeping of live animals. Obtaining, housing, and feeding live animals for these large numbers posed more difficulties than keeping or purchasing salted meat. Civilian vessels often contained crews numbering below a dozen men.

Some larger vessels above two hundred tons burthen had crews of between one and three dozen men. Exceptions to these small crews included those of privateering vessels, larger East Indiamen, and some slave ships, which all had the potential of engaging in some kind of combat during the course of a voyage. When the Navy did keep livestock onboard, it usually belonged to the ship’s captain and officers.

Said animals often ate some of the same food as the sailors, to the dissatisfaction of the crew. [54] Civilian vessels had more opportunities to carry live chickens, turkeys, geese, pigs, cows, sheep, and goats onboard. Occasionally, the livestock fell victim to sickness and injury while onboard, with some animals dying, especially during storms because of drowning.[55]

While Navy vessels did have some animals aboard, the smaller crews aboard civilian vessels made keeping live animals for the general crew a more viable option.

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In New England, vessels heading out on local trading voyages of short duration and ships heading to the northern fishing grounds carried Indian corn, beans, chickens, and other live animals besides the provisions typical in the Navy. On fishing vessels, the fish they caught for merchants did offer one means of food, though eating their catch meant consuming part of their potential profits.

Some fishermen collected the oil out of the fish they caught for cooking. New England mariners at sea drank cider, beer, Madeira wine, and rum. They consumed whichever drinks were available and affordable. Many ship owners in the fishing fleets tried to sell addition food, drink, clothes, and other supplies to their crews whenever possible. Sailors paid for these supplemental supplies through deductions to the pay or shares they received at the end of a voyage.

These deductions allowed merchant owners to pay their men as little of their shares or wages as possible, or to force them into debt servitude. In the middle of fishing voyages, some owners sent vessels with large cargoes of alcohol to the fishing grounds, which the fishermen bought large amounts of drink from for several days.

This brief indulgence resulted in many of the men returning home with little or no money to show for their efforts. While the Navy and other merchant vessels also sold their men extra supplies, the fishing industry stands out for selling their men enough goods that they put many fishermen into significant debt.[56]

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Slave ships carried some provisions that differed from typical Navy rations since slavers required large amounts of cheap food to feed the slaves they kept during the middle passage across the Atlantic. For the two daily meals allowed to slaves, at 10 AM and 5 PM, each group of ten slaves received a tub of food along with several spoons.

One common meal for slaves included horse beans boiled with Muscovy lard purchased from Holland. If they did not provide beans, they probably received boiled peas with either lard, suet, or salted herring. Sometimes, instead of peas, the slaves received maize or cassava.

Occasionally, these main meals might feature small amounts of palm oil and Guinea pepper. Slavers sometimes gave out handfuls of mixed maize and cassava between the two meals. To their distaste, the Africans might receive rations of salted beef or pork, but without removing most of the salt from the meat before cooking.

For drink, meal times featured small amounts of water, usually up to a coconut shell worth with each meal. On rare occasions, to bolster their health, the Africans might receive a dram of brandy or other strong alcohol. Some slaves refused to eat the food given to them because they could not stomach their strange new diet, or wanted to starve themselves to death since they could not stand the inhuman conditions onboard.

Some believed death would return them to their homeland in Africa. When a slave refused to eat, the ship’s crews physically harassed and beat them, or force-fed them, sometimes with the assistance of a scissor-shaped device called a speculum oris that forced their jaws open. While the slaves ate the previously mentioned food, the crews of the slave ships had their own provisions of cheese, biscuits, and other common maritime provisions. They also shared some of the same types food given to slaves, though the ship’s cook often prepared the sailors’ provision better than the food intended for the slaves.[57]

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The types of food issued in the Navy and those purchased for civilian vessels were often similar, though often differed in the quantity of food provided to sailors. The Navy held one significant advantage over civilian vessels, the government paid for their provisions.

The Navy was a government service that did not operate for a simple financial profit, unlike merchants and other types of civilian vessels who kept a close eye on expenses since it could affect their profits margins. Before the reforms that occurred during Samuel Pepys’s tenure as Secretary to the Admiralty, sailors regularly complained about the portions and quality of the food issued to them while they served in the Navy.

After Pepys’s late seventeenth century reforms, veteran mariners such as Edward Barlow and doctors who treated sailors such as William Cockburn said the Navy held an advantage over the merchant service in at least the quantity of provisions issued to sailors.[58] The Navy still struggled to maintain the quality of their provisions, but at least made efforts to improve quality through investigations and using public advertising to recruit better quality suppliers.[59] One example that illustrates the way a civilian vessel reduced their rations compared to those of the Navy is an expedition in 1700 sailing to the Scottish colony of New Caledonia in Panama.

The crew onboard the ship Margaret began their cruise with each six men receiving five pounds of biscuit a day, compared to the six pounds that men in the Navy received. About two weeks into the voyage, the captain reduced the biscuit rations down to four pounds per six men.[60] Not long afterwards, the captain reduced the beef ration and limited water to three quarts a day.

Around the same time, some sailors were caught stealing meal from the ship’s hold, and only the intervention of the supercargo Patrick Macdowall prevented the sailors from receiving punishments.[61] For the Margaret, rations appeared to be less in quantity than those issued to the English Navy at the time.

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The Margaret and other ships found themselves short of provisions for a number of reasons beyond their owners attempting to increase their profits. Some victuallers tried to make as much money as they could by not providing the proper quality or quantity of provisions promised. Patrick Macdowall blamed victuallers for not providing the amount of rations promised to the Margaret’s owners.

Macdowall wondered where, “the cheat [the corrupt victuallers] lay[,] time can only discover; but our seamen suffers in the meantime.”[62] Besides not having the planned amount of provisions to begin with, a ship could only hold so many barrels and containers of food. If a ship could not obtain supplies before running out, this resulted in commanders cutting rations until they could receive more food.

Long voyages across the ocean, beyond the sight of land, might last longer than expected, especially if an accident or natural event occurred that slowed the ship’s progress. Being stuck at sea pushed some mariners into desperate acts to please their hunger and thirst. Some resorted to the dangerous practice of drinking urine or seawater when they could not get fresh water or alcohol.[63] Of all the reasons for mariners to find themselves short of food, spoiled provisions appeared to be the most common cause.

The age of the provisions, the damp environment, damage from an accident, improper cooperage or packaging, and infestations all contributed to food and drink becoming inedible. In 1717, while anchored in Madeira, Navy Captain Thomas Jacobs of the HMS Diamond presented a typical description of spoiled provisions for his ship, “the Beef was tainted and boyled very black, the Pork was Rusty and tainted, the Flower green and inclinable to be Musty, and that the Butter and Cheese were both decaying.”[64]

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For voyages longer than a few months, ships needed to receive more provisions, which the Navy tried to satisfy by sending vessels packed with more food. Since Navy ships could only carry about six months of provisions at one time, the Navy’s Victualling Office tried its best to supply vessels on long foreign voyages by sending supply vessels to resupply their warships.

During the War of Spanish Succession, the Navy struggled to send provisions regularly to ships stationed in Jamaica and Barbados. This food often lacked in quality, to the point of being inedible and further added to the Navy’s expenses of maintaining ships in foreign ports.

The largest and most notable exception to this system occurred in Barbados during the War of Spanish Succession, where Navy ships received provisions from private suppliers in the Western Hemisphere instead of from supply ships sent from England.[65] As time progressed, the Navy began to embrace purchasing local provisions.

Agents for the Board of Trade in Jamaica suggested the Navy should allow local suppliers to provide food in Jamaica during the 1690s. The 1731 Regulations and Instructions made the practice of providing fresh meat twice a week in foreign ports an official policy. By the War of Jenkin’s Ear in the 1740s, both Jamaica and Barbados supplied Navy ships through private vendors, often from New England.[66]

While the Navy found that private suppliers in the west to be the better solution to providing good quality provisions to their ships, it took several decades for this to become the standard practice for the Navy that otherwise waited for supply ships whenever possible.

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Ports in the warmer climates closer to the equator and further south offered some sea provisions not typical of those seen in the northern waters of the Atlantic. When agents in Jamaica made recommendations for providing food to Navy ships, they suggested turtle meat, “pulp, plaintains and other wholesome food,” in addition to beef, bread, and peas.[67]

If a port did not have a supply of salted beef or pork ready for visiting ships, captains and owners could attempt to buy a few live animals and have their crew prepare it for sea themselves. When William Dampier visited the Cape Verde Islands on the way to Australia, he stated that locals sold cattle, but only with cash money.

Dampier decided to trade salt for local fowl and maize instead.[68] Obtaining large amounts of livestock could be difficult if locals had only small isolated herds of animals, which made them more costly to potential buyers such as Dampier. In 1719, when the privateer Speedwell needed more provisions before heading to the Pacific Ocean, Captain George Shelvocke stopped at St. Catherine’s Island off the coast of Brazil.

There, he replenished the ship’s stock of provisions beyond those remaining from Europe and fed his men on local fresh foods while in port. Shelvocke purchased, “21 head of black cattle, some at 4 dollars, and others at 8; several hogs at 4 dollars each, and 200 large salted drumfish, at 10 dollars per hundred,” during his stay at this island.[69]

Besides meat, they obtained 150 bushels of Farina flour, a flour made from a fleshy root plant called cassava, which many people in the Americas use to make bread, especially when mixed with maize flour. Many vessels that traded within the Caribbean obtained cassava bread for local voyages. Shelvocke used the Farina flour as a kind of oatmeal.[70]

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What a ship might buy in a port depended on where and when said vessel traveled and what foods the local area could provide. Some less populated locations found it difficult to provide significant amounts of locally produced food to passing ships since their citizens often grew only enough crops for their own consumption.

Ships in the Bahamas or the parts of the Virgin Islands not owned by Denmark featured sparse populations that grew potatoes, yams, and maize in addition to catching local fish.[71] This is not to say ships never obtained potatoes, yams, or other local produce.

In William Dampier’s voyage to the Pacific from 1703-1704, the fishing boats on island of Magon provided them, “Fish, with some Eggs, Yams, Potatoes, &c. These were very acceptable to us; for now our Salt Beef and Pork was just at an end; and we had nothing to trust to, but our half pound of Flower a Day for each Man, and that very full of Vermine, Maggots and Spiders.”[72]

Introduced surplus food or that they imported provisions they could buy, otherwise the sailors had no choice but to see what local natural food sources might provide.

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When sailing far from friendly ports or in remote waters, mariners preyed upon any enemy ships or settlements they encountered to resupply themselves. Ships at sea regularly took food from ships they captured and from inhabitants on shore during wars or while engaging in piracy. While many of the provisions taken from other ships were typical sea rations, some exceptions did exist.

During Shelvocke’s privateering expedition, they captured a Spanish vessel, which had a supply of food that included marmalade and preserved peaches. After distributing the food they captured among the crew, a man who received a jar of marmalade discovered the Spanish hid silver in the marmalade to avoid paying taxes on the precious metal mined from the New World.[73]

In 1731, Navy regulations allowed pursers to have provisions captured from prizes brought onboard Navy ships, but pursers could only issue the captured food when they first ran out of their own provisions of a similar type.[74] Besides taking provisions off captured vessels, raids on land also provided crews with food. Privateers, pirates, and other non-Navy raiders went ashore and robbed civilians or ransomed settlements for provisions. French raiders attacking Jamaica and Spanish Main in the 1690s often targeted cattle and “hattos,” meaning herds of cattle or cattle ranches.[75]

The pirates or buccaneers who raided from the western coasts of the Americas in the 1680s and 1690s carried flour regularly in their ration. They supplemented the flour with any fish, fowls, pigs, goats, and cattle they encountered while raiding ashore.

These men also drank chocolate when they encountered it in their raids on Spanish territory in Central America, whose populace drank it regularly.[76] Be it by raiding ships of common sea provisions or farmers ashore of livestock, mariners often found theft to be a convenient means to resupply themselves.

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Nature also offered sailors a means by which to obtain more food during their voyages, especially in the more remote parts of the world that featured few or no settlements. The sea offered crews a bounty of fish to catch. Navy ships and civilians vessels alike often allowed their men to supplement their diets by fishing.

Their efforts resulted in catching and consuming a variety of ocean creatures, including sharks, dolphins, and manatees.[77] On remote islands in the middle of the large oceans that contained no inhabitants, sailors often found animals they caught and killed when allowed onshore. Anything that mariners could catch became fair game, be it birds, reptiles, or mammals.

Some islands, such as Juan Fernandez island off the coast of Chile, featured goats the Spanish purposely left on the island so they could reproduce and offer future voyages an additional food source.[78] Maritime and travel accounts of the period mention crews obtaining goats regularly in remote lands and in well-populated regions of the world.[79] Regardless of what was available, if an island or remote coastline offered a viable source of provisions, especially animals, mariners regularly tried to exploit it for food.

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Of all the animals sailors ate in the Atlantic and Pacific, turtles receive the most coverage in period accounts of sea provisions not obtained from Europe or colonies in the northern half of America’s eastern seaboard. In Dampier’s account of his voyage around the world in the 1680s, there are five continuous pages dedicated to turtles.[80] Considering their value as a food source, Dampier’s in-depth of this coverage is understandable. Several accounts of ships travelling in the Pacific mention gathering turtles, particularly in the Galapagos Islands. Many men in the Caribbean made a living by gathering turtles to sell to both local residents and to ships.

In 1684, when French Privateers attacked and prevented turtler sloops from bringing turtles to market, a local account estimated that 2,000 people in Jamaica alone ate turtles daily.[81] Dampier described three main types of turtle in the West Indies, the terapen, the hawksbill, and the green turtle.

The green turtle was the type sailors consumed the most while in the Caribbean, and are the type turtler sloops often brought alive to markets in Jamaica where they penned in the sea with wooden stakes until purchased. They not only offered delicious flesh to eat, their fat produced large amounts of oil.

Dampier described the green turtles as the best tasting in the Caribbean, and were, “larger than any other [turtle] in the North Seas. There they commonly will weigh 280 or 300 pound: Their Fat is Yellow, and the [flesh] Lean white, and their flesh extraordinary sweet.”[82] In the West Indies and South Pacific in particular, the turtle stood as a common staple of the maritime diet.