Rubbish
2006-08-10 05:45:35
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answer #1
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answered by angelina.rose 4
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Horrible. It was very difficult to store and keep foods in ships. Things often went bad and so many sailors often got some extra protein from weevils and meal worms. The rum that sailors are known for drinking actually served a purpose and is actually grog. Water when stored in nasty barrels went bad and moldy and so to help that, they would add rum because the alcohol would fight the mold. It also helped to fight infection because of the alcohal in it. Also, many sailors suffered from scurvy and to prevent that, they would eat limes thus why many british sailors are also called Limeys. Most of the time, the sailors would bring along a few live barn yard animals for meay and milk and would store them on the lowest decks. With all the live animals down there and their deffication mixing with sea water you can only imagine the foul concoction slushing around on the deck. If that mixed with any food, well the sailors would be screwed. To get over this obstacle, food and other important boxed were marked "Ship High In Transit" which was later shortened to "S.H.I.T" and that's where we get that word from.
2006-08-10 12:55:51
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answer #2
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answered by green_eyedgirl81 2
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Depends on your status.
Officers would bring their own provisions, so they would eat as well as they could afford. Always remembering that they'd have to take either live animals or dried/bottled provisions.
The ordinary ranks had a basic diet of ship’s biscuit, salt beef, salt pork, dried pease, oatmeal, butter and cheese, with substitutes of mutton, flour, raisins, suet, rice and sugar or molasses. Each man was entitled to quantities which averaged out at over 5000 calories per day. The official diet had been laid down in Pepys’ time, and between then and the late 1840s (when tinned food became good enough and cheap enough for general use) the only major change was to drop stock fish and increase the meat ration.
2006-08-10 13:10:25
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answer #3
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answered by UKJess 4
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Awful. As bad as you can imagine and then worse.
Eighteenth/early nineteenth century warships had huge crews in relation to their size and it had to be stored in barrels wherever they had space. Also, they wre away from land for months at a time in days before refigeration.
The lack of fresh food meant that after the first few days at sea there were no vegetables. The meat was salt. Much of the diet consisted of "hard tack", that is dry biscuits. After a little while at sea it became infested by weevils: the sailors rapped the biscuit on the table so that the weevils (or some of them) came out before they ate it.
The pursar bought the food from victuallers at the ports: there was a lot of corruption leading to the supply of unfit food.
Tables could be let down onto the decks during the day (at night the space was filled by hammocks): the sailors round each table formed a mess. One of their number prepared their meal and took it to the cook to be heated in the fire. How good your food was depended on the skill of the messmate who prepared it.
You asked about the food, but drink was an even bigger problem. Water was strictly rationed and none too good - remember it was stored in barrels, often for months. That is one reason the sailors were issued with a daily tot of rum. By the time of the Victory, there was also a ration of lime juice (hence Britain's being called "limeys") to combat scurvy: previously the lack of vegetables, and therefore vitamins, meant that the men's gums bled and their teeth fell out.
The description I have given above relates to the men. Officers lived hugely better. They provided their own food. The midshipmen and officers, the latter in the Wardroom, shared their food, and its cost, and the Captain provided for himself. They could afford to buy better food. They obviously had similar problems with fresh food because of the time they spent at sea, but had better ways of dealing with it, e.g. spices to disguise the taste. C.S. Forester gives extensive descriptions of meals, and the procurement of provisions, in his Hornblower books, such as "The Commodore". These descriptions, whilst fictional, are carefully researched and you might well enjoy reading them. They are good war adventure stories too!
2006-08-10 13:06:50
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answer #4
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answered by Philosophical Fred 4
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Absolutely disgusting. Stale biscuits crawling with weevils, scummy watery broth, heavily salted meats on scurvy gums, over-ripe fruit (and that was luxury) bit like a Harvester really
2006-08-10 12:47:28
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answer #5
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answered by trebs 5
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Same as most other Royal ships of the line back then...not too great.
Salted meat, hard rolls, eggs if they were lucky, hard cheese...nothing fabulous. If they had just left port, they might have fruits for a couple of days before they spoiled and milk from goats before they ate them.
2006-08-10 12:46:59
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answer #6
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answered by drumrb0y 5
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same as the food you get on a p& o ferry, but the victorys cook didn't have syphillis
2006-08-11 11:07:54
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answer #7
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answered by nuclear farter 3
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I should look on the internet. Oh, and there are some great chat forums that can answer this sort of question...
2006-08-10 12:56:02
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answer #8
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answered by Anonymous
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Doesn't bear thinking about, but I've had worse in some UK roadside caffs.
2006-08-10 14:21:45
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answer #9
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answered by cymry3jones 7
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biscuits so hard they could break ur teeth and weak beer which was safer to drink than water
2006-08-11 17:55:52
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answer #10
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answered by danchip 2
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