#life aboard

[ltwilliammowett]

A Sailor fishing off a gun, HMS Pallas, by Lieutenant Gabriel Bray, 1775

[ltwilliammowett]

Life aboard HMS Victory in Nelson's day, by Charles E. Turner (1883-1965)

Photo by me- IMM Hamburg

[ltwilliammowett]

The Wooden World

If you watch series or films about the age of sail you will never catch or see what it was really like on a ship. Earlier ones often showed an idealised world. Everything was clean and even the smallest ship had cabins as big as two-room flats. Even if they try to portray it authentically nowadays, it will probably never be completely successful.

Navy and Merchant ships needed many men, mostly involuntarily, to keep the ships running, the sails were heavy, the guns a hazard and the ships leaky. Physical labour was hard and the drill tough. They were crammed together like sardines in mostly damp hammocks. Due to the constant dampness on board, the men were often always in damp clothes, which led to illness. The punishments could be terrible and the food, even if for some it was more and better on board than on land, was monotonous and or contaminated by vermin. The water would soon tip over and the lack of it could lead to dehydration and cramps. Combat was cruel and could mean death or serious injury and crippling at any time. Not every captain or officer was a warm soul and some took out their frustrations on the men below them. And alcohol was often a comforting friend to endure the suffering, the strangeness and the absence of family.

It was no different for the pirates, who were often considered to be freedom-loving rebels. Many of the men had a Navy background and so the hierarchy and chain of command was also to be found here. Many of the men had to sign the rules on board and pledged allegiance to their captain. Life on board was just as hard under the same conditions as in the navy and in merchant vessels. Even though the punishments could be harsher, society was freer than the others in some respects, but that didn't always have to be the case. The prospect of a supposedly free life and rich profits from rich ships lured many to their doom and to an early death.

Of course, you can't paint everything black and only portray it badly, there were also many who joined voluntarily and had experienced and seen a lot. But the reality was not a cruise.

[ltwilliammowett]

These beautiful watercolours were painted 1823 on the 3-gun Schooner Union of London. The Union served in the West Indies in suppression of the slave trade. She was wrecked in 1828 and was commanded by several Lieutenants.

Unfortunately it is not known who made them, but it shows the everyday life of the men on board. A break at the galley. The quiet work on deck and finally a dinner with the commander during heavy seas.

[ltwilliammowett]

Footropes

These are ropes attached underneath the yard to give the sailor support while he works on the sails.

These did not always exist there, they were probably first introduced around 1640 (written sources say 1640, but the Sovereign of the Seas launched in 1637 wore them, probably as the first) and then in the lower yards.

It can be assumed that the upper sails were caught up early in a storm, so the footropes were only used as storm protection. The topsail yards followed around 1680 and the rest around 1700.

[ltwilliammowett]

Weekly duties aboard

This small list is just a general one, there were variations on board, so tasks could be postponed, deleted or executed differently like the gun exercises for example. These could be executed with a cannonball as well as dry, i.e. without, to train only the hand movements and the sequences.These exercises were mandatory but the additional ammunition and powder had to be payed by the captain himself and was not included in the amount of ammunition and powder issued by the admiralty.

Monday- Wash clothes; gunnery exercises; repairs

Tuesday- Scrub the hammocks; musket exercise by the marines; air the bedding

Wednesday- Exercise in reefing and furling the sails

Thursday- The men to wash themselves; mend clothing; gun deck inspection by the master at arms

Friday- Gun exercises at the great guns; wash clothes

Saturday- all decks cleaned ( the main deck is cleaned daily, everything else is daily kept roughly clean by the swabber. )

Sunday- The men wear clean clothes and the uniform; line up for inspection by the lieutenants and the Captain; church services or the reading of the article or war; free time in the afternoon

[ltwilliammowett]

The Capstan

A ship is a giant structure which needs big ropes and strong cables to tame her when at sea. These ropes are of various types with some thicker than the diameter of your arm. Moreover, the ship also uses massive anchor chains that are attached to the ship’s anchor.

The process of handling these cables and ropes on board a ship has been a cumbersome task since they were first used. Even though the sizes of ships during the days of the age of sail and the age of steam were not as big as those present today, handing the ship’s anchors have always been a tough task. To handle this difficult task a device known as capstan is used. A ship’s capstan is a drum shaped device that is used for hoisting weights or for winding ship’s anchor cable. A capstan is similar to a windlass, but unlike windlass, it rotates in a horizontal plane and around a vertical axis.

The transverse capstan of the Wissemara a Cog replica of the 14th century

The term capstan was generally used in the days of the age of sail and age of steam. Capstans were used to weigh the ship’s anchors using anchor cables. They were also used for other heavy work which was beyond the normal hauling power a team of a team of men but they were also used on shore, particularly for hauling ships in and out dock.

Written evidence of its use dates back to the 13th century and tells of winches on board of English ships. And after that time there were two variants, one transverse and the other vertical. However, since only a few men could work at the same time, the transverse variant was soon only used on smaller ships. The big ones like the cog, for example, only used the vertical one. The basic principle of the capstan: a vertical post mounted to rotate in the deck had a conical base in the lower part to hold several ropes. The upper extension of this base made it possible to insert loose rods, so-called capstan bars, into holes prepared for this purpose in order to turn the entire capstan.

Already in the 16th century a kind of brake in form of a locking lever was added to the capstan to prevent it from turning back. This was usually placed under the capstan and was applied as soon as the capstan turned back. The capstan itself sat on the deck behind the main mast when the anchor was haulled. (But there are also exceptions where it was one deck deeper.)

The double capstan of HMS Victory, as a model and the original onboard

The more bigger the ships became, the more necessary it became to change the capstan to hold more, at first they tried different heights, but then they made it over a bigger capstan head and more bars. Ships of the line from the end of the 17th century onwards were equipped with double capstans and even had three capstans on board which were distributed over several decks. This meant that more than 260 men could work on a double capstan at once. With a single spill there were about 10. Often this hard work was accompanied by singing a shanty together. Then, the so called shantyman, sat on top of the capstan and served as a clock and lead singer. (see the first image) 

Nautical capstan. Historical artwork of sailors using a nautical capstan, a mechanical device used to move heavy weights. It consists of a rotating drum (centre) used to winch a rope that is wrapped around it. Illustration first printed in 1700

When not in use the bars were always stowed away nearby and the holes in the capstan were closed with decorative flaps. But the capstan was also an important part of everyday life when not in use. There were meetings and inspections around the capstan, and if a priest was present, the service was held from there. But also disciplinary measures could be carried out there.

Capstan of HMS Warrior

From the 19th century on, when chains slowly replaced cables, spills became more and more made of iron. And from 1850 onwards, these were steam-laid and made manual hauling superfluous.

[blossomoutboy]

Why do i need to pack!?! I hate packing...