Galleys in the Golden Age

[Daniel]

I've found remarkably little information about ship's galleys in the Golden Age. It's tough to search the Web for, because of course people are mostly concerned with galleys right now, not galleys on sailing ships 300 years ago.

What I think I know is that disabled sailors were often made cooks, and that pirates would have prepared food similar to what they knew from the Royal Navy or the merchant service, i.e. biscuit, salt meat, pease, beer or ale, cheese, stockfish, oatmeal, and butter, with the occasional salmagundi (worms and weevils are a free extra).

What I don't know is:

1. How much was the galley actually used? Many of the items on the bill of fare, like cheese and biscuit and butter, don't require any cooking: I'm not sure if the meat was salted cooked or raw.

2. Did smaller vessels like sloops, schooners and brigs/brigantines have galleys?

3. Where on the vessel would the galley be located?

4. What kind of equipment did the galley have? Was there an actual enclosed oven or range? Cutting boards? Pots and pans (copper? lead? cast iron?). And how did they contain the fire, one of the most dangerous things on the ship?

5. How many men worked the galley?

[Jack Roberts]

I've been trying to find info on ships stores myself and I haven't a lot of info. I need to start digging deeper. I have read that the Royal Navy has PC paperwork on "victualing" ships but no one has compiled the info. So I keep searching.

[Hawkyns]

Smaller ships did have a galley. It was generally in the focsl and was commonly a brick box 3 feet or so on a side. Smoke was vented through a hatch over the box. Fires were kept as small as possible, and dosed during rough weather or any kind of action. The common cooking pot was a cauldron in which some kind of stew could be boiled.

Salted meat frequently needed to be rinsed to get rid of the excess salt. One method was to put the meat in a bucket or barrel with holes in it. This could be towed behind the ship to rinse out the salt, the sea being less salty than the meat from the barrel.

Hawkyns

[Silver]

research "the seamans grammar and dictionary" by john smith. he lists the vitaling of a ship for 190men. google the maryland dove there are some great pics of a small ships galley. some small ships cooked on deck in a metal stove called a fagon or a hogshead cut in half and filled with sand and lined with bricks.

[Daniel]

Excellent, thank you all.

Regarding victualling, the daily bill of fare for the Royal Navy in 1707 can be seen here

[Jack Roberts]

Oh thanks all. I'll check those out.

[Daniel]

Found the Maryland Dove's galley! Thank you for the tip!

[captscurvy_nc]

Thanks for the refrence pic

[Silver]

in the time life books seafarers series "the explorers" page 142 shows a drawing of sailors cooking on deck using a fagon, it is called a woodburning stove in the narrative. i'll try to find were i got the word fagon for it.

[Capt. Sterling]

http://www.melfisher.org/hmresearch.htm Go here and click on The Copper Cauldrons aboard the Henrietta Marie

Not specifically the galley but the copper cauldrons aboard the Henriette Marie, which they seem certain were used for cooking on board ship

[Bright]

Yea get a glimpse of the Half Moons galley in this vid ;-}

Edited April 2, 2010 by Bright

[Mission]

Came across this in Père Jean-Baptiste Labat's Memoirs 1693-1705 (Translated from the original French by John Eaden, 1970):

"They [the Spanish on the ship Sainte Trinite, a ship with 'an armament of fifty-two cannons and a total complement of 300, including passengers'] were cooking their food on deck between the main and mizzen masts, but when they are at sea, I believe that the galley is under the fo'c'sle. Each member of the crew had his own private pot, for the sailors and soldiers are called signores Marineros y los signores Soldados, and are too high and mighty to be fed a la Gamelle as our fellows. [the French]" (Labat, p. 186)