Food and drink on board ship in 1805

Although the food onboard a Naval Vessel may seem poor by today's standards it was really very good and provided the nourishment needed to keep a man fit for all his work. A typical daily ration would provide around 5500 calories. Sailors actually fared better than their counterparts on land and could be sure of getting regular meals.

Rations

Rations for each of the ordinary crew were worked out over a fourteen day period and the table below shows how.

Day	Bread (lb)	Beer (gall)	Sugar (oz)	Cocoa (oz)	Tea (oz)	Salt Beef (lb)	Salt Pork (lb)	Flour (lb)	Peas (pint)
Sun	1	1	1½	1	¼	¾		¾
Mon	1	1	1½	1	¼		¾		½
Tue	1	1	1½	1	¼	¾		¾
Wed	1	1	1½	1	¼		¾		½
Thu	1	1	1½	1	¼	¾		¾
Fri	1	1	1½	1	¼		¾		½
Sat	1	1	1½	1	¼	¾		¾

Sun	1	1	1½	1	¼		¾		½
Mon	1	1	1½	1	¼	¾		¾
Tue	1	1	1½	1	¼		¾		½
Wed	1	1	1½	1	¼	¾		¾
Thu	1	1	1½	1	¼		¾		½
Fri	1	1	1½	1	¼	¾		¾
Sat	1	1	1½	1	¼		¾		½
14 days	14 lbs	14 galls	21 oz	14 oz	3½ oz	5¼ lbs	5¼ lbs	5¼ lbs	3½ pints

Oatmeal and vinegar were supplied but rationed to one pint spread over the fourteen days.

Sometimes, other food would be substituted for the items shown. For instance, on days were flour was due to be issued it may have been substituted by suet or raisins. One pound of raisins was considered to be equal to one pound of flour, but if suet or currants were used then they would be issued at only half a pound.

1½ lb soft bread, 1 lb of rice or 1 lb flour considered equal to 1 lb biscuit.
1 pint of wine or ¼ pint of spirits considered equal to one gallon of beer.
1 oz of coffee or ¼ oz of tea considered equal to 1 oz cocoa.
1lb Rice considered equal to 1 pint of peas.
1lb butter considered equal to 1 lb sugar.

These rations were from the standard provisions stored on board but there was also fresh meat and poultry from the livestock kept on the ship and until the chickens became food they could also provide eggs. Fresh vegetables were stored, but without modern methods of refrigeration they did not stay in good condition so were used up quickly. Salt dried fish could be used, and the crew were able to catch fresh fish when conditions allowed.

Cheese and ships' biscuits formed a regular part of meals but neither of these were particularly appetising as they became riddled with worms and weevils during a voyage.

Water kept badly, but could be flavoured to improve the taste. Beer kept slightly better but could not be mixed or flavoured like water could. For this reason, beer was issued first until it ran out.

On reaching land during a voyage stores would be replenished with fresh water and supplies whenever possible. Admiral Lord Nelson said "It is easier to keep the men healthy than to cure their ills." and this was one of the main reasons he would always make the greatest efforts to get fresh food and water whenever possible.

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Ships Stores

HMS Victory could be fully provisioned for six months at sea - the the following figures give some idea of the huge amounts of stores needed.

Water	300 tons (67500 gallons)
Beer	50 tons (11250 gallons)
Salt beef & Pork	30 tons
Peas	15 tons
Butter	2 tons
Oatmeal etc	4 tons
Bread	45 tons (usually in the form of biscuits)
Flour	10 tons

Of course, this is not all of the stores - room had to be made for vegetables, dried fish, livestock and the many other ingredients for meals.

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Livestock - not quite Noah's Ark

Cows and goats were taken to sea as a source of fresh milk and were kept in mangers below decks; chickens and pigs were also kept and occasionally sheep. You can imagine the noise and smell in the confined spaces! Fodder for the animals had to be stored but once the fodder was used or the animal was no longer productive it became food for the crew. Everything taken on board the ship as stores had to serve as many purposes as possible.

To keep freshly butchered meat as cool and safe as possible (from theft as well as flies) it was put into a special 'nautical meat safe' . This looked like a wooden disc with hooks to hang the meat from and was slung from the overhang of the ships stern in the fresh salt air.

There is one story of an Alderney cow who during her three and a half years of travelling provided milk every morning and evening for the ship's Admiral and officers and sometimes for the midshipmen too. When her fodder ran out she didn't end up in the cook pot but was fed on a mixture of hay, bread dust and peas soup. She also had a daily ration of grog added to her water supply.

Cats lived on ships to help control the mouse and rat population and it was not unusual for an officer to take his favourite dog on board.

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Typical meals for the crew

Meals for the crew may have been monotonous but they were regular and nourishing, even if they were not very appetising. After reading about these you may think school meals are not so bad at all!

Breakfast was a cold oatmeal porridge called Burgoo. This was made of boiled oatmeal seasoned with salt, sugar and butter and was easy to prepare even during very rough seas. It was nourishing enough to sustain a man during his morning's work. A drink of Scots coffee was provided - this was made of ships biscuits dropped into the galley fire until they were burnt to charcoal, then crushed up and mixed with hot water.

Lunch came in the form of some sort of soup or stew with salt beef, pork or fish with the addition of dried vegetables if there were none fresh available.

The evening meal was made up of ships biscuits with butter or cheese depending on what the ration of the day was. The biscuits were usually infested with weevils and the cheese had worms in it due to the storage conditions but as the men were hungry and the meal would have been eaten in the dark few would have refused supper. The picure on the left show what a ships biscuit looked like.

The men would have eight pints of beer a day to drink but this was only available nearer home whilst it was still fresh. Flavoured water was made available when the beer supplies either ran out or became too sour to drink. If the ships were in the Mediterannean then two pints of wine a day could be had. Rum or Brandy was served in warmer climates. This was dished out in two issues - one at lunchtime and the other at 4pm.

Officers Meals

Officers fared slightly better than crew when it came to food and the Captain had his own cook to prepare meals .

Although on long voyages the Officers ate the same meals as the crew they were able to pay for extra food and sometimes paid to have their own hampers delivered to the ship before it sailed. They often took extra food and wines and spirits onboard themselves and had food parcels sent out to them from home.

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The Cook (who very often couldn't)

The ship's cook was rated as a Warrant Officer appointed by the Navy Board and invariably was one of the pensioners of Greenwich Hospital. Employing the cook in this way had been going on ever since 1704. Greenwich Pensioners were ex-members of the Navy who had left the service earlier because of injury, often amputation of a limb so they would often have a more able-bodied assistant to help with the heavy duties like cleaning and scouring the big copper kettles. The cook may also have been a man who had recovered from his injuries and volunteered to go back to sea as a cook. The galley's equipment was inspected every morning by the Midshipman or Mate of the Watch.

The cook was paid about 35 shillings (£1.65) each month in addition to his Greenwich Pension of 11 shillings and eight pence (58 pence)

Because the only qualification need to become a cook was to be a Greenwich Pensioner the standard of cooking was often very poor as the man would not have been trained or had experience before. Although able to boil meat and produce peas soup easily there is no doubt he soon learned what the crew would tolerate and what they would not!

The cook could make extra money from himself from 'Slush' which is the fat that rises to the top of the water meat is boiled in. Although half of the slush had to go to the ship for use in greasing running rigging and suchlike, the cook could keep the other half. He was not supposed to give it to the crew in case they tried to make their own food, but he was allowed to cook small extra meals for friends at sea, usually in exchange for some Grog (watered down rum).

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The Galley and Firehearth - where all the cooking was done

The galley and firehearth were where cooking took place. In 1781 a Scottish Ironworker, Alexander Brodie patented a large iron stove known as a 'Brodie Stove' which he supplied to the Navy.

The large firebox and open hearth were fuelled by coal or wood. As you can imagine, it was important to keep the galley manned to ensure sparks and heat did not cause fire to break out on wooden ships so large flagstones were laid underneath. If a fire did occur it is unlikely to have gone unseen as there were so many crew aboard.

There were two large copper vessels called 'kettles' for boiling meat, stew, oatmeal gruel and the like. Their total capacity was 1137.5 litres (250 gallons). Two large baking ovens could cook 36k (80lbs) of bread at a time and two spits for roasting meat were chain driven and linked to a smoke jack (to take away the smoke) and would rotate automatically.

Seven hanging stoves, where meals for senior officer could be cooked, were heated by coals taken from the firebox.

A copper distiller was also used - this could convert seawater to fresh water but only at the rate of about 9.1 litres (2 gallons) each day.

Wooden tubs were used to soak the brine (salt) out of meat before it was cooked. The tubs were known as 'steep tubs'.

The area where Officers food preparation took place was called the scullery. The men prepared their own food in their messes and then took it to the galley to be cooked.

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