The Food of a British Sailor in Nelson's Royal Navy!
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- Опубліковано 22 жов 2021
- 'The Food of a British Sailor in Nelson's Royal Navy!'
200 years ago, Britain's Royal Navy was the most technologically advanced and supremely efficient force in the history of naval warfare.
But what was it like to live and work on board these ships? What did the men eat? How did the ships sail? What were the weapons they used?
In our latest documentary on History Hit TV, to commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar, Dan Snow explores what life would have been like for those whose served in the Nelson's Navy.
Check the full video out here: access.historyhit.com/videos/...
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#RoyalNavy #Nelson #DanSnow
Military life-99% pure monotony with 1% significant emotional events. I remember a show examining the bones of an 18th century RN sailor-no scurvy, good nutrition, excellent muscle development.
Every warrior knows that war is long periods of boredom interspersed with short periods of exciting action.Thats why it’s important for them to know when to rest & when not to.
It was tough on the body anyway. Skeletons from the Mary Rose have shown arthritis in their 20s.
@Creative Development Lab I know one of the chefs who served aboard! Probably made your food!
@@MrTony079 Life in general is tough on the body. People's health today is horrendous thanks to our sugar infused, processed diet. Nothing new under the sun.
And yet they needed to gang-press people to serve shows how grueling the sailor's lives must have been
When Jackie Fisher was appointed First Sea Lord, one of his first actions was to have bakeries built on warships. Sailors would have fresh bread every day instead of hardtack. A little thing like this was a great morale booster.
I wonder what one of those ovens look like and work.
@@Ren505nm Give the time period of Fisher, not much different than what you have now. We are only talking 1904 for his first year as First Sea Lord.
edit: Really the only major difference would be that it was likely coal (or I guess maybe wood) powered instead of electricity or gas. The rest of it would more or less be the same, except that it would be made of cast iron. Note that ovens are often dedicated pieces of equipment and not the combo oven/range as are common in many parts of the world today.
edit 2: Just some conjecture: At Fisher's time, ships were steam powered, so it is not impossible for ships to have been designed to use steam for parts of cooking. Using steam for more than just powering engines has been and still is a staple of being near a ready source of steam.
Does the title of Sea Lord come with a trident?
@@SageofCancer afaik, British admirals do not complete SEAL training in the USN. It does however come with its own gold fouled anchor. :P
@@whyjnot420 Huh, so somebody is getting tridents. Not a battle ready one, but still. I guess it's only the really big kahunas that get a fork big enough to serve man.
I always find it so fascinating when you see how much of modern expressions and slang actually come from sailing and war time. "Learn the ropes" clearly comes from learning what all of the hundreds of ropes do on a sail boat. Going "over the top" is from WW1, where soldiers would storm over the top of trenches. There are thousands of examples of that.
Me too.Especially,in sports.
Our very phrase denoting Excellence, was from the RN
First Rate.
( Other Nations of course don't have such a word, as they are ipso facto second rate. )
@@uncletiggermclaren7592 posh comes from the rich people who would go on luxury cruises, so they would be in the shade from the sun they would go Port Out Starboard Home
"Not enough room to swing a cat"-naval term origin from not enough room to swing a cat-o-nine-tails whip. That's why flogging what done topside..
The most well known Is "OK" from "zero killed" in ww1
Also swabbing the deck was a means of keeping the wood from drying out and shrinking. If that happened the next big rain would flow through the cracks in the upper deck down below, possibly sinking her if they were unable to bilge the water out.
Only a landlubber would think that you should scrub decks along the grain of the timbers! The first lesson I learned as a deckhand was that you scrub ACROSS the grain, scrubbing along the grain strips out the softer fibres and wears deep grooves into the timbers. I winced watching this.
LMFAO "landlubber" hahahahahaha. Arg matey yohoho and a bottle of rum. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA....
@@moappleseider1699 I bet he was on a training ship for a week 😂
@@alisonhilll4317, no, I crewed professionally and sailed thousands of miles.
I didn’t know this but very interesting. I think that’s why practical history is so important. Need more Mike Lodes (spelling ?)
@@Pete-tq6in Sorry man but my dad is a Vietnam vet who did a tour on the USS Enterprise. I grew up on an island, in south Florida. We had a 26 foot San Juan. Used to sail all the time. i used to go clean the fishing charters and other boats for extra cash on the weekends. I have never heard anyone outside of a pirate movie say "landlubber" and expect to be taken seriously. No disrespect. Just saying lol.
If you notice the platter that the food is served on is square. Thus, gave rise to the term 'Three square meals a day'.
The term "Boucan", or grilling and smoking meats on wooden grills became "boucanier" with the French sailors. Eventually becoming the English term "buccaneer".
As someone who works on sea and it's always so interesting to see the similarities and the difference of life onboard a ship back then to today. Can't imagine the bravery it must have taken to spend months/years at sea back then knowing you may never return.
My impression is that they didn’t have much of a choice!
Back then most seamen didn't have a choice. Many were Shanghaied.
With absolutely no work or prospects on land , what else was there unless you became a robber.
If you work at sea, there is always a chance of not returning, and if you work at sea, you spend months and years at sea. The ships are different but that is the same.
A sailors' day didn't start at 5am. Most vessels kept a two watch system where half the sailors worked 4 hours and the other half were "below". To assure that any one watch didn't have to always work the same watches, they had a "dog watch " in the afternoon where they had two 2 hour shifts to rotate the crew This was usually where the crew nade up for lost sleep, otherwise they made up for it when "below".
The "saillors didn't do the morning ritual of "holystoning the deck". That was left to the "idlers", gunners' mates, loblolly boys, carpenters' crew and officers' servants that worked during the day and were allowed a full eight hours sleep(when conveinient) at night. The officers ate much better than the crew, but they paid for their own mess along with the warrant officers and in some ships, sailors were allowed their own personal rations,
Very informative and after further research, information accurate with plenty of supporting evidence to support. Makes me worry about the research material collated for this mini documentary.
IMO with your wealth of knowledge, you should've presented this video!! 👍
And, it's a Bosun's Call, not a whistle
@newtonmenlo: And the short watch was called the "dog watch" because it was cur-tailed. (Someone has to pay homage to Patrick O'Brien's novels, no?)
Also, with the space below allocated for the slinging of hammock at only 14" turn and turn about meant those coming off watch could jump into the hammocks of those mess mates going up, increasing the useful space to 28".
When American sailors saw how good their British counterparts had it, they were so impressed, they joined up right away!
rofl That's one way to describe press ganging and kidnapping. XD
That's right, Cully !
@@Yaivenov they were so IMPRESSED get it thats the joke
I see what you did there.
They were British in the first place but B+ for the joke.
Traditional British ales were made differently from European. At the end of the mashing process, the wort(sugar water) must be separated from the grain. The European process continuously adds hot water to the mash as it is being drained. When the vast majority of sugars are washed from the spent grain, the resulting liquid is fermented into beer.
The British process involves draining the liquid from the mash, and adding water in stages. The first liquid(gyle) that is drained is the strongest, and made into ale for the rich. Water is added, and then drained again, making a weaker ale for the middle classes. Water will be added a third time, and drained into small beer for the poor.
The process waned in popularity with the invention of 'stout porter', which was a blending of the 3 gyles. Without the different classes of drink, it was more efficient to make stout by the European method.
Most beer consumed by the Navy would have been in the range of 3.2-4% abv. They understood that weaker beer would not keep for a long journey. That is the reason the India Pale Ale was invented. The trade deficit with India made it cheap to ship most things there from Britain. They made ale extra strong and bitter to preserve it during the journey to India. It was assumed that the ale would be diluted to regular strength when it arrived in India, but the British soldiers preferred to drink it at full strength.
That was an education Sir. Thank you.
As a brewer, this is really interesting to read through.
Didn't it cause a mutiny in India when they tried to dilute it???
The best historical fiction of the Royal Navy of the day are the Master and Commander books by Patrick O'Brian. Superb. Charlton Heston was a big fan.
On my first ship, an old type 15 Frigate, in 1970 I had to sleep in a hammock! Serving on the old HMS Bulwark we scrubbed the wooden planked quarter deck the same way as they did in Nelson's day! The food was a tad better though! And I was also old enough to get my daily tot until it was stopped!!!! Served for 32 years through good times and bad times and wouldn't have changed it for any other way of life.
He’s missed out a few things:
Sailors were also served salt Pork as well as beef.
They didn’t just eat oatmeal for breakfast, also ‘Scotch Coffee’ which was burnt bread boiled in water added with sugar.
Another thing they used to deal with Scurvy was the Sea Scurvy Grass.
I'm the son of a sailor. My dad & I try to teach each other maritime words & phrases, like "The Seat of Ease". I learned something new about the slush fund. I'm going to run that one by him. Great vid. thanks for sharing. Fair winds. 😁😁
He's like a recruiter for Nelson's Royal Navy. The food is great!
Holystone scourers were the size of a house brick. The Small Beer was around 0.5% abv so a gallon would not get you drunk. The hard tack wasn't eaten dry, it was soaked in water or beer to make a broth.
The ones I used, were half the size of a cinder block.
@@johnnunn8688 USN Holy Stones were large brick sized and had a hole in the center for a wooden stick to be placed to manipulate the stone while the sailor stooped over it. Nothing on hands and knees.
Holy stones. Large ones were called bibles, small ones were called prayer books.
Seeing you scrubbing the deck reminds us of the monotonous reality of life in the navy. It's easy to forget this when we focus on the battles.
They usually sang songs, not unlike an Army cadence. It makes the work pass better, installs a rhythm, and raises moral.
Life at sea, even in the civilian world, is one of monotonous daily routine. I used to work with a former merchant seaman. He said the pay was good, but the boredom and repetitiveness inherent in the life finally drove him out.
It's still the reality in all modern navies, air force, armies etc, most of the time. Except for maybe some corrupt third world militias where the men are enlisted on paper and they spend their time carousing with prostitutes and getting drunk or something.
Nothing to do but dream about prize-money and home.
If this one is correct its prehistoric. Before ships had midline rudders, they were steered on the same side canoes are paddled and steered from; that would be the steer- board (starboard) side (right). Because the rudder was tied to the ship on the starboard side, port side was the side the ship was tied up the the dock/port on.
The one thing that a lot of historians (who should know better) miss is the fact that salt beef and salt pork was only issued at sea once the fresh meat had run out, the same of course with vegetables. If you look at the many different accounts of food issue it often states that the preserved food where only issued once the fresh had run out . . . . . . the problem seems to be that because the fresh food was many and varied it was not possible to keep accounts of what went onto the table - so our so called experts manage to "forget" the fresh stuff!
@Thisis Gettinboring I agree that it is a fair omission, but you also have to consider that things like potatoes, onions and garlic can last basically a year on sea climates if kept properly. In my village for example, if you manage your crops properly you don't have to buy onions all year from just one or two harvests in the summer. And certain fruits can last for months if picked green. Also, you have preserves like tomato sauce or jams that can also last for long periods of time.
So obviously you'll basically never see grapes, fresh meat or leafy greens, but you'll have something fresh for long periods of time to supplement your rations of long lasting fresh stuff. I bet the cooks were more crafty than we might give them credit, and they might have been able to make more elaborate stuff than just a plain bowl of chickpeas and oatmeal every day. Also, I bet they had some amount of fish all year long, but i have no idea.
And the cooks had great incentive to make the best from what they had, after all you might end up cooking for the officers and swipe some of the good stuff from time to time if you prove your worth. I mean, smuggle a spicy spanish chorizo and you have enough to make plain soup into something actually good for hundreds of people. Smuggle fifty and you have enough for good soup once a week for a long time. Or you could make garlic soup with just a bit of garlic, some dry meat and dried bread, transforming half a ration plus a garlic tooth into a full meal.
I bet there was enough underground activity (or underdeck in this case) around the kitchen to transform what we believe to be a boring repetitive diet into something else entirely.
But I bet we'll never know, considering all we have records of is what was loaded oficially and what the officers ate.
@Thisis Gettinboring well, about the warm weather I have no idea, didn't consider that. But about it needing to be dry not so much, I mentioned potatoes, onions and garlic because my village was right next to the sea, in an extremely humid place, and we manage allright to keep them by using special buildings extremely ventilated. They might decay a bit, but they won't rot entirely, and with certain practices, like leaving the leaves on the onions, braiding them and hanging them in strips, they keep for a long time. And when I say that the climate there is extremely humid, I mean that I've seen granite walls sweat from the inside. So I asumed that if it can work on a temperate climate right on the coast, it might work on a ship. I'm not saying they'll last two years in the Caribbean, but they'll definitely last longer than whatever your water supply will.
Another thing that I didn't mention in my last comment is that yes, voyages might last for years, but I doubt they'll go that long without resupply of any kind, so while they stop to get more beer, water and other stuff they might as well resupply on those kinds of stuff, since you can find them anywhere. And even if you can't, every place has cheap things to add flavour to dishes, and every culture has ways to keep those things fresh.
I guess that beer was the only thing that kept those guys from getting "backed up!"
I loved this. I wish it were 2.5hrs long and went over more of the daily routines and labors of the Nelson era navy.
6:45 - 'It should be said....... that sailors were world leading experts in smuggling their own supplies of booze aboard ship"
As a sailor, I can tell you that still holds true today!
The British armed forces were infamous for the amount of booze they drank, not just in the navy but in the army as well. Wellington famously called them the "scum of the Earth", but anecdotally may have added "but what damn fine fellows we made of them".
When I went to Summer camp, some gents snuck in cinnamon or mint schnapps in mouthwash bottles and added red or green food coloring.
US Navy sailor. Can confirm.
How can I become a sailor?
Hundreds of years later the Royal Navy still has an obsession with keeping the ship spotless, Standby for Captains Rounds and Evening Rounds.... as for the food, " he lies like a pussers menu " 😋
I thought this was Michael Bolton, really digging into his Pirates love by exploring historical ships.
It is said that RN Admiral Edward Vernom, "The Old Grog", intended to administer vitamin C to the Royal Navy garrisons through lemon juice, but of course this is much too bitter to be accepted and I guess that making lemonades would have spent huge amounts of sugar. And we must remember that by then sugar was still an expensive and rare commodity. So he had the excellent idea of mixing the desired amount of lemon juice with Rum and water creating the drink that bore his nickname, and everyone in the Royal navy ended up satisfied!
Michael Bolton's a British historian?!?! That is incredible.
This is the tale of Captain Jack Sparrow...
Why should I have to change my name? He's the one who sucks!
Regarding the able seamen having to know and do everything, it is the same in modern times. In 1975, I enlisted in the USAF. My classroom telecommunications training was six months. When I reached my first duty station we communicated with sailors at Stockton and Sunnyvale, California on dedicated links we had to constantly maintain. It was not long after I got on duty that I learned that the sailors doing my comparable job got two years of training The Air Force was specialized with assigned radio technicians, crypto technicians, multiplex technicians, teletype technicians, etc. The sailors pointed out to us that on ship if the seaman that repairs the radios is a casualty, there is no replacement, so "they have to always know the other guy's job." Props to the Navy!
I was in the navy for 8 years and served on 2 ships, LST 1189 and BB 63 as a GMG2. Every crew member was trained in shipboard and aircraft fire fighting and ship damage control. On the Missouri I was a 16 inch gunnersmate as well as ship armorer. I taught the guys below me my job so if something happened to me they could continue until another NCO replaced me. Everyone in the turret knew everyone elses job and could replace them if needed.
In the navy it has to be that way. If a fire breaks out at sea you cannot call for the fire department or leave the ship. Sounds cruel but if someone in the turret got killed you pushed him out of the way and took over his job. If say lost a few fingers then down to sick bay, get patched up and right back to the turret to do what he could.
Absolutely fascinating!!! Thanks for posting man!!!
Is this the same gentleman that would host a military channel series with his dad? No clue what it was called, but they’d go over all sorts of battles in the modern era and have cool CGI troops and tanks overlaying on a terrain map. That was a solid show. Dad n son sharing love for history.
YES it is, the father was once a newsreader, ITV?
"Sailors in Nelson's Navy were pretty well looked after..."
That wasn't the universal opinion of the sailors themselves. Poor food and the "Purser's Pound" (where the purser would take a couple of ounces off each pound of meat as a perk) were among the key issues in the 1797 mutinies at Spithead and The Nore. These mutinies involved up to 50,000 sailors at their height, and spread to include Nelson's flagship The Theseus (which was off Cadiz at the time), among others.
What happened after the mutinies? Did conditions improve?
@@DHEspana They did! It was a rather civilised mutiny. And they eventually got much of what they were after, which was only fair.
When did the RN sailors get sauerkraut and limes as a standard part of their rations? Was this prior to 1797 or afterward?
@@anachronisticon I think one of the mutinies was civilised because it focused solely on poor conditions, whereas the other was treated more harshly, and the ringleaders were hanged
@@jamiengo2343 Ah yes, if I recall correctly, that was more of a copy-cat mutiny from some overblown demagogue?
I agree with a previous responder, the Navy gave us a whole lot of slang that has been adopted in everyday language. Swinging the lead, (checking the depth of water at the hull) a job given to a rating who was unwell and couldn’t go up top. Not enough room to swing a cat, a reference to using a whip (cat o nine tails) in a confined space. 3 sheets to the wind, an action only a drunken man would consider. There are hundreds more, the making of a programme on its own. W
The origin of "swinging the lead" as slang for pretending to be ill is very unclear, but it certainly wasn't a job for an unwell man! Very strenuous, wet and cold!
Tow rag is my favourite word that sailors of old used.
We all enjoy "Splicing the main-brace"
@@ctbaw9484 I think you're 'sailing too close to the wind' with that one.
let the cat out of the bag
getting the cat o nine tails out
As always, interesting coloured by your enthusiasm,,Got me addicted, thank you 👏👏👏
I recently transcribed a travelogue from a French mediterranean naval expedition from 1537, and it is filled with references with their need to come unto land to fetch water and biscuits. It was only when they docked at a friendly harbor that they could get to refill their meat and wine supply.
This is like an Alan Partridge presentation. Complete with turtleneck.
The Hornblower books had multiple accounts of sailors tapping their sea-biscuits upon the table before they ate them - to drive out the weevils that sometimes filled them.
Soldiers in the American Civil War did something similar. Both armies lived largely on hardtack and molasses, plus coffee. The hardtack was so notoriously full of weevils that the soldiers would dip the hardtack into their piping-hot coffee to kill the weevils, which would then float to the top and be scraped off.
Not uncommon with breakfast cereal in the early 60s. Reported by my dad ( HMS Victorious in the Far East)
@@iangarrett741 the extra bit of protein with your breakfast!
Fascinating- this is the history I love-down to earth.
Scrubbing the decks reminded me of when I went to work on the oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. We got our supplies from 'work' boats, and being exposed to the sea, their decks would develop a coat of algae (slime) that made footing impossible unless they were pressure washed regularly.
*I remember that scene in the movie Master and Commander where the sailor is on his knees scrubbing the deck and his has a flask of grog right next to him to help him get through the mornings work. Probably quite accurate.*
that was almost certainly pilfered or traded spirit that he was pretending was wash water -- he was hiding it under a rag.
Some sailors were teetotalers and would trade their spirit rations for tobacco or other things.
Probably not, M & C wasn't very strong on historical accuracy, although the Novels on which it is based were. You drank your grog with your meal.
Before STS-1 Columbia was assembled, the most complex single machine humans had made, was a British Navy First Rate Line-of-Battle ship.
It had more than working parts, each with its own specific name (and usually a qualifying verb too) and regimented specifications, more people serving it, and controlling it, than anything else that existed.
And of course the British vessels were MORE regimented, MORE disciplined, made to more exacting standards, than those of any other Nation.
...and the only "rope" aboard was the bell-pull.
@@TheCaptainbeefylog Interesting and true fact.
The only time they mentioned "rope" was talking about how the sheets, line and cable were or were not "laid".
@@uncletiggermclaren7592 or the bosun and his ropes end lol
Fascinating!!!
I luv Dan - he tells it like it is, no BS & very interesting to watch
I come from Hessian Army and American Army descendants (and am an Army veteran myself): that food looked GOOOD for field rations by any measure. To imagine eating 5000 calories a day (hot!) with beer to go with it sounds well worth fighting hard to protect!
Harsh conditions, backbreaking work, cruel punishments, the chances of dying a horrible death from disease or battle. I'd rather stay home, thanks!
Thank you again for not adding shitty background music like dubstep >_> unlike the BBC. I really appreciate that you're yourself and not try so hard to attract "younger viewers"
Came here after reading The Mutiny On Board HMS Bounty yesterday. It really puts Captain Bligh's stinginess into context.
Just discovered all this content! Really enjoying it! :)
Lime juice in grug is how the Brits started getting called "limeys"
And how they stopped getting scurvy.
In the Canadian naval tradition, Brits are called "Kippers" ... no doubt because of some other dietary habit.
I’d always prefer grog to grug myself.
@@jonjames7328 "Grog with a little Codeine" ...
Yes, and the US referred to our ships as Lime Juicers. Quite funny really because the US has normally used 'Limey' in the imagined pejorative without realising the fact that our sailors lived while theirs, at least for a few more decades, continued to die of Scurvy.
Funny, a lot made of defeating scurvy, no one realises the German and Norse ship didn’t suffer from scurvy because Sauerkraut was part of their everyday diet. Likewise the Chinese, they had a cuisine that used shoots as part of their diet and had sprouts constantly on the go.
that's probably true but I don't think the Norse or Chinese would have spent so much time away from land as a British Navy that had to reach across the world. Apart from an exploratory expedition to Africa the Chinese stayed pretty much in home waters or close to land. Likewise the Norse would not be likely be at sea more than a week and could land anywhere in Western Europe for a bit of plunder to stock up.
@@freebeerfordworkers no, the Chinese circumnavigated before Magellan, even discovered Australia. When I was in Macau I went to the museum and saw evidence the Portuguese were selling Aboriginal women as curios in the 17th century. I assume you know of the Chinese fleet visit to Europe in 1521. There is evidence of the Chinese in Victoria in the 17th century and evidence of the Chinese in the Northern Territory in the 17th century. There is also very definite documentary evidence of a Chinese fleet in Australia in the 17th century. Even Marco Polo got as close to Australia as where Malacca now stands.
@@anthonyburke5656 I'm afraid it's not my field, but I thought that after the great exploration that predated Magellan an imperial edict forbade any future voyages, restricted the size ships and destroyed all records of the expedition. The visit of English ships to Constantinople at the end of the 16th century was considered so exceptional it was widely reported so I'm surprised to hear the Chinese got to any part of Europe in 1521.
@@freebeerfordworkers it’s true though, it’s part of the historical record. We don’t blink these days at hard archeological evidence of Viking settlements in America, would you be surprised at evidence of Chinese settlements in both South and North America pre Columbus? True, it appears the settlements had been cut off from China for some generations, but they were there.
@@anthonyburke5656 'the Chinese circumnavigated before Magellan' nonsense.
Excellent as always.
Fascinating.
An officer, and a gentleman, must always choose the lesser of two weevils.
Great content, well made. Please don't fall off.
Lots of English terms came from the RN, Such as: toerag deriving from Tow Rag, a piece of cloth on the end of a rope at the head of the ship used to wipe your arse with. If not dropped back into the ogin (water) then it was a dirty tow rag. Three square meals coming from the square plates fixed into the tables that the crew ate from. Not enough room to swing a cat, referenced to the whips used as punishment never used below decks as the deck head was too low. Pooped, coming from the poop deck that was known for sailors being washed overboard (or pooped) in high seas.
Fantastic info for a land lover like myself.
I'm surprised that you didn't touch on the fact that British people were often referred to as "Limeys" because of the limes that were carried aboard their ships. We don't really hear that term much any more.
Is the citric acid responsible for the teeth?
Kaleb710
Grow up mate.
@@Him-Jong-un haha yes
The full pronunciation is _Limey-Fuck_ for an individual. And, _Limey-Bastards_ for several such.
(Source: An American Sailor)
napoleonic royal navy ships decks were not stained like the deck in this video. they were white wood. sanded down smooth every day.
yep, not stained but color depends on the wood as it was replaced. All woods colors age differently..
thats what i thought too ...
Fascinating..
we need more of these vids about sailors food
Enjoyed this thank you. Was hoping to find out about one role that really gets to me when watching movies. Not sure if I am correct, but I thought I heard somewhere that it took 3 men to turn Victory's wheel. More in rough weather.
Only until she had hydraulics fitted.
@@johnnunn8688 Thank you for clearing this up
@@wellingtonsboots4074 Three or even four, not so much the turning of it but keeping it where you want it. A sailing ship requires a certain amount of helm to keep her course when the wind is anywhere but dead aft and of course the pressure on the very large rudders of the day would transmit itself to the wheel.
@@johnnunn8688 Or high bollocks if someone let go.
@@MrDorbel, would it, wow, who knew?
How fit were the sailors during the age of sail? Usually in top condition. About 1897 The Strand, a British Magazine assigned a reporter to write an article about the Thames River Police. From its Hqs. at Wapping on the river, crews of six with a Sgt. would shove off to start the journey down to Gravesend patrolling the river to prevent theft from the numerous ships on the river. The crew were retired Navy or merchant seamen, who could and often did 10 hours of continuous rowing. The reporter said they didn't even break a sweat doing it. Hard bodies even into their 40s and 50s, they rowed in all types of weather, rain, snow, high winds, summer heat. Steam launches were being added to police at the time, but they were usually reserved for when speed was essential, usually during a chase.
Overworked, underpaid, fed a nutritionally horrible diet. No medical care. I doubt if many of them ever made it to their 50th birthday.
Any theft from boats on the river was considered as piracy and was treated as such
@@reynaldoflores4522 Well, the guys rowing the boats had reached pensionable age, so...
@@reynaldoflores4522 Sailors in the Royal Navy ate 5000 calories a day.
@@michaelplanchunas3693 Composed mostly of stale hardtack, and salted beef. No fresh fruits and veggies.
Horrible. A nutritionist's nightmare.
Thanks for the interesting video!
You can tell how much this guy works, he’s winded from just barley scrubbing the deck.
Drachinifel covers the diet of a sailor in a pretty good video, he also describes a drink called “scotch coffee” made by scraping burnt bread into hot water and adding sugar. Sounds awful but I guess it was a way of getting a few more calories into the body
He put a lot of sugar in that burnt coffee, just to make it bearable.
The real problem was to put it simply
You had to house, feed and care for over a hundred and at best four hundred men in the middle of the ocean and it became no surprise that ships became their own living community, however that was only a small part of the problem, feeding and watering the men might be easy but ensuring that say an entire cow has to last you several months and NOTHING CAN BE WASTED, any leftovers would be gladly eaten by their fellow crews, and unfortunately whilst at sea the rules are there are no laws and so not only do you have to keep your men happy because if not they’ll be more than happy to throw you overboard if you rule like a tyrant, if you rule too leniently then the men will become lazy and ildisciplined which would spell disaster or a much lower level of moral and effectiveness, and so whilst captains tended to be harsh, they had to draw a fine line between making sure that the men did what they were told, both as quickly and effectively in or out of combat. And finally combat, since it’s one thing to get to a war it’s an entirely different game when you have to fight it and having to ensure that not only is your ship still sea worthy but also that your crew are willing to fight and die for you and are fighting to the best of their abilities and finally to ensuring the security of your cargo, since you might get to a battle several miles away and even win it, however you’re sod all useful if all of your food is wet and damages
Simply put, a well fed crew is a happy crew, and happy crews don't kill their captains.
@@user-tz5uq2bt1s pretty much sums my ramblings up
Were commas on sale?
@@siler7 unfortunately due to covid yes
Put simply? Quite possibly the most incoherent summation I've read in a long time. Notwithstanding the atrocious grammar, there's no clear thought process or line of argument at all. Desmond at best. Merry Christmas
Great video. Really enjoyed it
I love a day on the life of historical roles
Samuel Johnson wrote that it was better to be in jail than to be a sailor because being on a ship was like being in jail but with the added risk of drowning.
The fact that the British Navy had to literally kidnap sailors to fill the ranks gives an idea of the appeal of the job.
Imagine waking up hungover after a night in the bar only to realize......you're a British sailor now!
If you read the history of the Brit Royal Navy they actually had better than reasonable living conditions for that era, sure ships discipline was at times harsh but it had to be.
@@ardshielcomplex8917 a lot of the volunteers did so , because life was easier, all those extra sailors for manning the guns, would be used for sail handling when needed
The good doctor also said that any man worth his salt secretly wished he had joined the forces. Every man who didn’t was secretly glad they didn’t!
Press gangs were not the normal situation but used at times of war to SUPPLEMENT the numbers built on volunteers that took the Kings Shilling on joining the Royal Navy. See "The Wooden World" by N A M Rodger. ISBN 0 00 216548 1 Publisher Collins 1986. It will tell you about the food, the fresh meat and milk. Too many people watch Hollywood movies and believe they are factual rather than 90% pure fiction devoid mostly of facts.
In my opinion horatio nelson one of the best admiral in the history of the british empire
No, the best
As for Captains I'd give it to Cook.
@@aussiesam01 Napoleon respected cook so much that he told his navy to leave him alone.
how many admirals do you know or are aware of to make that judgement, you nonce
@@thewhitedoncheadle8345 The RN itself agrees with him. For years, a standard toast in the officer's mess was "To the immortal memory!" It was not a reference to the Earl St. Vincent or to ABC.
Thanks for the video
I would like to see shipboard messing re-enacted. Nowadays, the crew goes to a dining area, but until the mid-20th century, RN ships had the sailors eat in their quarters (messes). Selected crew had to carry food from the galley to their respective messes, and there served. I can't quite get a good mental image of this taking place on a small, packed sailing ship.
when I was in primary school in New Zealand about 1982 my teacher brought in a biscuit from the Royal Navy from about 1780.No mould etc on it and probably still edible
In the 1870s a supply ship for Ft. Leavenworth KS. was iced in. The garrison was down to a keg of hardtack dated 1812 before a band of soldiers arrived from the stranded ship. It was 90 miles from the fort. Immediately a relief column of men, wagons, carriages assembled to bring supplies back from the ship.
3:30. "The Royal Navy looked after it's semen." I love instant translation!!! Carry on!
The best thing for morale is hot food with some mates. Seriously they get your spirits up
If anyone is wondering why the Americans sometimes throughout history referred to the Brit's as "limeys" (And probably still do) it is because of the limes to prevent scurvy.
Orange bucket excused. But, retrieving a bucket being dragged by a ship underway is Very difficult and sometimes impossible. Water for deck washing would have been pumped up and run through a hose.
Maybe if you are bashing around at 30 knots in a stinkpot. It really isn't that hard to pull a full bucket on a line at 5 knots, and I'm an old fart. These were young fit men.
If there was bilge water to pump, then I expect they would have used it. But you don't pump the bilges every day, and pulling up the hoses to throw them over the side is far more effort than getting the youngest on the ship to do a half hour of bucket hauling.
at 4 to 6 knots its entirely possible
@@theoriginaldylangreene and manning the pumps was often a punishment detail at the time. Chain pumps are a solid bitch to crank.
Dan snow what a legend
Why what’s he done?
good catch
I always learned that you never brush scrub a wooden deck in the long direction of the planks but across , safer for the caulking 😏👍
In the book "Mutiny On The Bounty," the ship's carpenter presents a visitor with a nicely carved and polished snuff-box made of wood with unusual grain and texture; after some more talk, it turned out that the snuff-box was carved and made from some of "His Majesty's own Salt Beef" which is usually - after some work, and ingenuity, to the sailors.
As the film said. " always choose the lesser of the two weavels"!
Weevils
@@HO-bndk when I need a apelling lesson I will ask for one. In the meantime... get a life!
Extra protein!
Great piece on diet. Must have had a similar diet in the US Navy, except the carbs were likely beans. It was difficult I was told to encourage US Sailors to eat " greens".
My great grandad was with the Commodore Mathew G Perry Expedition to " open " Japan aboard the USS Vandalia for a period of exactly four years. He likely benefitted from a small stature ( 5' 2") and that Irish Man from far Donegal survived the 1852-56 excursion, and lived until 1901.
In his majesty's service one must always choose the lesser of two weevils
1 gallon of beer a day by 400 sailors on a ship = a boatload of beer. Literally.
My grandma said her Father who was a merchant marine used to bring home hard tac and she liked them with Tea , you had to dip them in tea otherwise they’re not edible ..also to mentioned , he was always drunk and she blamed his sailor lifestyle for that ..
One little correction: one can not brew beer from dirty or contaminated water. It's a common misconception that people think in the process brewing unclean water gets clean. Just two start brewing you need fresh good water.
Also, the gallon seems much, but the alcohol was less then modern beers. Around 1,5 to 2 %. Somewhere in this area.
But nice little documentation.
Greetings from Germany
Where do you think they got the clean water from
I love the age of sail!
I really wanna know what the ship's pantry looked like. I know on modern submarines they literally line the decks with rations, but I can only guess as to how tightly-packed with preserved food a ship on a long voyage would be. How long were the rations to last before the expected to take on new supplies? What was the thing they kept in storage the longest (the ration of last resort)?
Well it was whole industry in GB by then, every single Farm/Estate providing a range of food products to the Royal Navy. I think a Quartermaster appointment was made to cut down on rampant corruption, and every purchase was accounted for. Considering every ship of the line visited Ports from Sydney, Singapore, Penang, India, South Africa, the Caribbean, Mediterranean and North America, the provisions were ready at each port, including lemons :) - I assume it was a diverse range of crews, from age and race so that kind of made sense, health wise, some are more tolerant of tropical diseases. Cleanliness was next to godliness so this was critical for the survival of the crews.
I believe hardtack was the ration that they kept as a last resort.
@Pangur Ban Imagine trying to provision, a U boat. Late in the war. They probably went out hungry.
In those days, there was no refrigeration. No canned foods.
The only way to preserve food was by salting and drying. So they had to eat salted pork for months on end.
Read, "The Wooden World" by N A M Rodger, Collins 1986. ISBN 0-00-216548-1
It tells you livestock, Beer Strength, Bread, Dry Biscuits everything. The RN Sailors were better fed than they would have been on land.
Fun fact: ships’ biscuits have become a culinary delight to serve along wine and cheese. They are slightly different from the ones shown, I presume, but they are based on the same concept of dried water biscuits meant to last.
Were the weavils part of that culinary delight? Sources reported they are quite bitter.
Man im so greatful for living today.
the US navy never had many issues with scurvy, its often (and wrongly) stated that sauerkraut didn't stop scurvy but that is not the case, look at ancient china, they survived on rice and basically nothing else, the main thing keeping them from getting scurvy was kim chi, a dish that is nearly identical to sauerkraut, or look at the US navy before ww1, sauerkraut was standard issue for the longest time, it is still a popular dish in the south... I should know, I grew up in the south (eastern Kentucky to be more precise), like 90% of the time a jar of sauerkraut was your lunch in the coal mines, that stuff can last years without refrigeration, probably decades if left in a cellar.
Question, if the hammocks were stowed daytime in the nettings around the rails, wouldnt the rain and sea spray and general conditions make them soaked or at least damp when you want to use it to sleep?
You would think so, but the daytime temperatures at sea and lite salt spray, along with the total UV exposure (mostly) dried them out and killed bacteria and parasites. (Damp would have been a normal condition in a 100% wood, hemp and canvas ship at sea anyways. Probably welcoming to lay in a damp, clean hammock to sleep, while in a wooden, semi-ventilated tub filled with 278+ sweating, burping, snoring, farting men below deck in the Summer.)
1:18 thru 1:26 I suspect this is nothing more than a myth, at least as far as them "cutting the rope" goes. Rope is a very valuable commodity (especially at sea), and it is unlikley it would have been destroyed so frivolously. I'm sure they would have simply up-ended the hammock and spilled the sailor to the floor that way.
P.S. Overall, I loved the video.
no they really did cut the hammocks down, from the foot end. they also shouted show a leg when in port, and if a ladies leg was shown the couple got an extra 15 minutes
@@BigBadLoneWolf Prove it
@@IHateThisHandleSystem I suggest you read "The Wooden World" by NAM Rodger. The splicing together of two cut ends of a hammock rope would not occupy a seaman more than a minute, while your hammock would be actually touching those of your neighbours on either side, so "up-ending" would be neither quick nor easy.
@@MrDorbel Sounds interesting. I'll check it out. It may be true they cut the rope in that specific circumstance. In general, rope was a precious commodity, and it would not be treated like it is in the movies (where nobody has ever untied a knot, instead only cutting the rope).
@@IHateThisHandleSystem if you splice the cut rope then no rope is wasted. you might lose a bit in length but that's it
Good video except for the end where you said: 7:19 "scurvy, a disease they quite realised was caused by a deficiency of vitamin C. " Well no they didn't have a clue what caused scurvy. In 1928, Albert Szent-Györgyi isolated a substance from adrenal glands that he called 'hexuronic acid'. Four years later, Charles Glen King isolated vitamin C in his laboratory and concluded that it was the same as 'hexuronic acid'. Norman Haworth deduced the chemical structure of vitamin C in 1933.
I feel like "Out or Down" should be a product sold to literally everyone.
I can never find the will to wake up, but now with THIS REVOLUTIONARY NEW PRODUCT ! --"
I would rather have served in the French foreign legion than Nelsons navy. Less brutal 😬
There's actually a documentary about this called "Master and Commander"
"Master and Commander is not a documentary, it's fiction and not very accurate fiction either!
@@MrDorbel Aw, why don't you try making a movie yourself?
Quite surprised to hear how they actually ate pretty well. As expected for the massive amount of work they were doing.
Not always.
Scurvy was a real problem. On long voyages they knew a certain portion of the crew wouldn't survive.
I'm curious, when beef, or pork, had lain in the cask for years, even well salted, hoe edible was it really? On the one hand, men who were suffering from food poisoning couldn't really work a ship, on the other, a captain didn't really have any control over which casks of salted meat he was issued.
Can someone speak more to the part where they'd "cut the hammocks" if you didn't get up in time? I thought the whole rope-cutting thing was a myth as rope was way too valuable at the time to just cut it up for no good reason.
I found that part and spoke to it. Then I replayed it a couple of times and spoke to it again. Hope that helps.
@@justinneill5003Young right?
@@matth6900 Nah, I wish. No offence, just having a pop at all these daft modern phrases that have crept into our language. Have a great day… and thanks for ‘reaching out.’
@@justinneill5003 Language, both spoken and written, constantly evolves. There is no "right" or "wrong" way to speak. Or do you think we speak the same as the people manning these Napoleonic ships? "Daft modern phrases" have always "crept" into our language, and always will. I am sure you speak more then a few phrases that the generation before you would have found daft. If enough people start using "reaching out" in a certain way, then the meaning changes. It is not set in stone.
@@Azog150 That’s true I suppose, but the rate, scale and faddish nature of the new modern phraseology, and the pretentious way it’s seized upon to confer some kind of kudos to the user, that can be irritating. Thank you for your backflow (I just invented that one.)
In fact, rum contained vitamin c from the sugar cane. The amount of vitamin c to prevent scurvy is very low. The amount in a quarter orange is enough to cure someone from it. It is, however a very nasty infliction
Most people think that 'landlubber' was the word used by seamen to describe the folk not living on the ships.
Not true.
If you examine the crews of ships of the line, you'll see that there were a number of seamen and able seamen but also a lot of landlubbers.
These landlubbers were new recruits (voluntary or not) who still had to learn the ropes.