Something to chew on!

I recently finished watching the Hornblower series. I'm quite sorry it's over now. They are great stories, and really well-portrayed. And so, I continue in my British naval history mode.

Today I was looking into some information on what captain, officers and crew ate when setting off to sea.

I found a very interesting account in a book by Janet MacDonald, Feeding Nelson's Navy, published 2006.A good deal of previous accounts show life at sea, as far as eating is concerned, tantamount to being in a severe prison, with stories of starvation and rotten food for crew, while the captain and his officers dined in unrepentant splendor. MacDonald begs to differ, having done some new and striking research.

She shows how the sailor diet could actually be better than what he might have ashore, and of better nutritional value as well. She remarks that the reason for the great mutinies of 1797, with food a major grievance, was more the abuse of

the system, not the food itself. But the system of distribution was a logistic marvel for the times. At the height of the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy fed a fleet of over 100,000 men, in ships gone for months and months away from home.  

It was the British Navy that almost totally eradicated the dreadful disease of scurvy, by 1800. That's a major accomplishment in itself. The idea that citrus (limes in this case) had a profound healthy effect. We so know this today, downing copious qualities of Vitamin C at the drop of a Kleenex!!

Though there was no real preservation of food as we know today (refrigeration and canning), the Victualling Board was able to generally provide enough food to serve the needs, including the packing of meat, brewing of beer, and baking of biscuit.

Of course, once on board, these foods were strictly controlled and distributed as fairly as possible. And, she comments, that in many cases, captain and officers took lesser cuts of meat, and allowed crew to have the heartier. After all, they were the one's who needed the strength for hard labor.

Everyone got daily rations of beer to drink, as water in casks went bad very fast. And of course, there was the daily tot of rum, a treat for good behavior.

MacDonald points out that some captains kept gardens ashore along their assigned cruising lanes to supply the crews with vegetables.

This is not to say that life on board was easy or a romp in the park. Discipline was strict and swift, to keep the wooden world functioning properly, but new research gives the food issue some new information to chew on!  Makes me want to read MacDonald's book!