A sailors normal day?

[JohnnyTarr]

Ok, I am wondering about a normal 24 hr day for a sailor. I know that they were kept busy with the rigging of the ship. Also there was always cleaning to do. So given no storms and no battles what would be a normal day.

All hands would be pipped on deck and the daily scrubbing would start. All hands would be pipped to breakfast. How long did they get to eat? All hands would be pipped back to work. Working cordage, polishing brass, rigging the ship, ect. All hands would be pipped to the next meal. When would that be? Back to work. Then one set of men would be pipped to rest for some hours or sleep form 8 till Midnight? The dog watches from the midnight till 4. Sleep from 4 till 8 and the day would start again.

Does this sound like a normal day?

[Matty Bottles]

Although a hundred years late, the book "Two Years Before the Mast" contains excellent detail into the day-to-day condition of working sailors. I'm reading it now, but I confess I didn't pay attention to all those specific details. I'll go back and see what I can find.

[Fox]

For daily life of sailors I thoroughly recommend:

The Diary of Henry Teonge (naval chaplain, 1670s)

Adventures by Sea - Edward Coxere (life in the RN, 1640-50s)

The Journals of Edward Barlow (late 17thC)

The Narrative of William Spavens (Royal Navy, 1750-60s)

And Dampier of course...

For a slightly cynical view but with a wealth of detail Ned Ward's "Wooden World Dissected".

[JohnnyTarr]

For daily life of sailors I thoroughly recommend:

The Diary of Henry Teonge (naval chaplain, 1670s)

Adventures by Sea - Edward Coxere (life in the RN, 1640-50s)

The Journals of Edward Barlow (late 17thC)

The Narrative of William Spavens (Royal Navy, 1750-60s)

And Dampier of course...

For a slightly cynical view but with a wealth of detail Ned Ward's "Wooden World Dissected".

What would you recommend as a good place to look for those books? Amazon?

[Fox]

I don't know if Dampier is currently in print, but of the other I believe only Spavens is currently available. All of the others have been published in the 20thC so you need to keep an eye open for second hand copies, or try Abebooks. Barlow is #@%*ing expensive! Perhaps seeing if you can get them on Inter-Library Loan might be a better route.

[JohnnyTarr]

Well I will keep you all posted as to how I do.

[Silver]

what time frame and country are you wanting to know about. would it be merchant, navy, pirate?

[JohnnyTarr]

Would there really be that much of a difference between them?

[blackjohn]

I don't know if Dampier is currently in print

He's always in print...

http://www.piratebrethren.com/primarysourc...rce/15685-h.htm

http://www.piratebrethren.com/primarysourc...rce/15675-h.htm

And free, thanks to Gutenberg.

[blackjohn]

Would there really be that much of a difference between them?

Probably maybe depending on who you ask.

[JohnnyTarr]

Would there really be that much of a difference between them?

Probably maybe depending on who you ask.

That is what I mean. I am just looking for a general day. Like what time they were called "Up hammocks"? What time they ate breakfast and dinner? You know that sort of thing. I have "Two years before the Mast" and will be reading it. I will see what that has to say.

[Silver]

i think the hammock showed up on ships in the mid to late 1700, until then the men slept in small bunks built along side the bulkheads or any where they could find a dry spot below the main deck.

[Fox]

Hammocks were taken on Drake's last voyage in 1596 and were Navy-issued from the first quarter of the 17th century.

[blackjohn]

That is what I mean. I am just looking for a general day. Like what time they were called "Up hammocks"? What time they ate breakfast and dinner? You know that sort of thing. I have "Two years before the Mast" and will be reading it. I will see what that has to say.

I prefer the pirates' day... wake up with a hangover... get drunk... fall asleep... wake up with a hangover... get drunk... &c

[Silver]

this is a great place to flesh out a sailor's life, if you do a sailor impression you will be asked "what was it like." i know there are different veiws on the matter, i would like to exchange those views with anyone interested. here in the tidewater area of va. we have the repo. of the susan constant 1607, also the elizabethII 1580's in n.c. they both have bunks for the crew. i'm not saying hammock didn't exist.

[Littleneckhalfshell]

""I prefer the pirates' day... wake up with a hangover... get drunk... fall asleep... wake up with a hangover... get drunk... &c""

BlackJohn is not so far off of what a sailor's life was like, as far as being drunk, a pint of rum a day, would at least give you a good buzz. So I would guess that they would not pass a breathalizer test.

They were all likly 'SUI' (Sailoring under the Influence)

Information on drinking in the Royal Navy 1680-1740

http://www.everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=118937

""When Jamaica was annexed (or conquered, or borrowed, whatever Brittania used to do when she ruled the waves) in 1687, the Royal Navy replaced the brandy that it had offered to its sailors on a daily basis for centuries with rum.

The ration was one pint for men and a half pint for boys (hence the term) daily. One suspects that alcohol was the only thing that really kept the men and boys going during those three year cruises of which the Admiralty was so fond. (Let's not go there.)

Goode olde Admiral Vernon, in an effort to dilute the rampant alcoholism that pervaded Britain's proud force for a couple of hundred years, started mixing the rum with water as early as 1740.

The one pint (or half pint) ration was not decreased, merely diluted. Sailors received two pints of grog (half water, half rum), served at noon and six P.M.

This is, I believe, an early and sterling example of military intelligence.

Sailors (and boys) who drank too much were "groggy."

For all sorts of unusual adventures involving boys and men at sea with booze and gunpowder, refer to the exquisite seafaring novels of author Patrick O'Brian.""

[Silver]

the o'brian novel are excellent, if you listen to his book on tape or cd you feel like you are there. i have been reading a book called "to rule the waves" by a. herman about the royal navy from the 1500-wwII. anybody eles read that one. it has alot of info on the life of a rn sailor

[Coastie04]

As for bunks vs. hammocks, what I had always learned while sailing on Lady Washington, is that many merchant ships had neither. You literally "hit the sack" by finding a comfortable place upon the cargo, deck or cordage to sleep (and from experience, I can tell you that a mass of fenders and spare rope can actually be quite comfortable). Later hammocks became common, followed by bunks becoming the norm in the 19th Century. Part of it probably also depended on the size of the vessel. Lady Washington is a relatively small vessel designed for coastal trade. There would have been much less 'extra space' for sailor accomodations. In a larger vessel, they probably could affoard to take on a little less cargo and thus have a small area for the crew. Unfortunately, I don't have any sources to back up this info at the moment, but I'll look through my books later on this week.

Coastie

[Patrick Hand]

I don't know if Dampier is currently in print

It's published by Dover, they just re-titled it "Memoirs of a Buccaneer Dampier's New Voyage Round the World -1697-" (re-)Published 2007

[blackjohn]

Would there really be that much of a difference between them?

Probably maybe depending on who you ask.

That is what I mean. I am just looking for a general day. Like what time they were called "Up hammocks"? What time they ate breakfast and dinner? You know that sort of thing. I have "Two years before the Mast" and will be reading it. I will see what that has to say.

I was flipping through a book the other day that you may find of value. The title is Steering to Glory: A Day in the Life of a Ship of the Line. One caveat, the era covered is Napoleonic, so some (many? most?) of the practices may have changed in the 100 years between.

[Misson]

For daily life of sailors I thoroughly recommend:

...

The Journals of Edward Barlow (late 17thC)

This is an amazingly good read and provides splendid insight into the day-to-day life of a sailor during period. It's better than Woodes Rogers or William Dampier for readability and flow. Although it's definitely something you want to get through a library; the only copies I found for sale were well north of a thousand dollars. (Good old inter-library loan...) I just got it yesterday and I'm 60 pages into it. Absolutely fascinating.

It comes in two volumes with lots of illustrations Barlow did in the margins of his journal. Search for it as:

Barlow, Edward, Barlow’s Journal of his Life at Sea in King’s Ships, East and West Indiamen & Other Merchantman From 1659 to 1703, Transcribed and edited by Basil Lubbock, London, 1934.

[Silver]

earlier in this thread we had a discussion about hammocks, bunks or the deck for sleeping. i was reading "jolly roger " by patrick pringle. in chapter 21 the capt. snelgrave story, capt snelgrave writes that the pirates who had captured his ship slept on the deck. he wrote that they use the phrase" lay rough". thanks

[Misson]

I was poking around, looking for a reference when I stumbled across the Hakluyt society's webpage. (They publish books on world explorers and travels.) Anyhow, they appear to have some of their early books available on-line including the ones by Francisco De Orellana and Don Ferdinando de Soto which are mentioned and quoted in Woodes Roger's book. The seem to have been published on the Google UK site. Check 'em out here.

[Raphael Misson]

For daily life of sailors I thoroughly recommend:

The Diary of Henry Teonge (naval chaplain, 1670s)

Adventures by Sea - Edward Coxere (life in the RN, 1640-50s)

The Journals of Edward Barlow (late 17thC)

The Narrative of William Spavens (Royal Navy, 1750-60s)

And Dampier of course...

For a slightly cynical view but with a wealth of detail Ned Ward's "Wooden World Dissected".

I have been using Ed's excellent references and by jove if I didn't find some of these on-line for the asking! No one need whine that the period accounts of sailing are too expensive or HTF any longer. If we ever reach the ballyhooed moneyless state, Google will surely have had a hand in it. I had heard that U of M(ichigan) was working with Google to put their catalog on-line and here is proof. Save yourself time and angst, grab a .pdf and run with it.

The Diary of Henry Teonge

Dampier's New Voyage Round the World -- Sterling, this is the original and it is different than the copy I have - I see it has those damned s's for f's - so if you want the real honest-to-John thing (which you probably don't want to have to pay for) this is about as good as it gets. Toss the pride in your library aside and add a .pdf to your collection.

Ned Ward's Wooden World Dissected

I have looked longingly at U of M's library in the past (they don't do inter-library loan with the common libraries) and it is the most complete I know of, so keep a sharp eye out for the other books on this list. My understanding is that the scanning of books is ever on-going, slow though it may be.

[Capt. Sterling]

Dampier's New Voyage Round the World -- Sterling, this is the original and it is different than the copy I have - I see it has those damned s's for f's - so if you want the real honest-to-John thing (which you probably don't want to have to pay for) this is about as good as it gets. Toss the pride in your library aside and add a .pdf to your collection.

pdf... but tis just not the same!!!