Scrubbing the deck

[Coastie04]

From experience, barefoot is extremely hazardous on a sailing vessel and is not very comfortable at all on the ratlines. Then there's all the things upon which to stub your toe, such as cannon carriages, hatches, deck cleats/blocks, other sailors wearing shoes, etc. And if you try to claim that sailors would be better on the deck of their ship and know where things are has never been on a ship in heavy seas. Knowing where things are (assuming they haven't moved) doesn't always matter when you can barely stand up. But, I digress away from the topic at hand...

[Swashbuckler 1700]

The presence of a bucket doesn't really prove anything. There would be buckets for all sorts of purposes, particularly near the gunner. (Guess where they put the water for the cannon swabs?)

Well yes I knew somebody would pick up on that. Yes true but... Well I dare to claim that gunner did other task as well and they did not spent all of their their time just beside the cannons.... Well yes he might have just cleaned the cannons or that bucket was there just for waste etc...

But for cleaning the ship: There is a Dutch caricature of a Dutch sailor in 1692. There the sailor has a sailor's knife and a besom that does not look like a mop. Of course the caricature is not the best source but the sailor figure seems to be realistic in it. I am trying to find that picture online... There is also an English and French Navy officers in that picture.

[Swashbuckler 1700]

The presence of a bucket doesn't really prove anything. There would be buckets for all sorts of purposes, particularly near the gunner. (Guess where they put the water for the cannon swabs?)

Well yes I knew somebody would pick up on that. Yes true but... Well I dare to claim that gunner did other task as well and they did not spent all of their their time just beside the cannons.... Well yes he might have just cleaned the cannons or that bucket was there just for waste etc...

But for cleaning the ship: There is a Dutch caricature of a Dutch sailor in 1692. There the sailor has a sailor's knife and a besom that does not look like a mop. Of course the caricature is not the best source but the sailor figure seems to be realistic in it. I am trying to find that picture online... There is also an English and French Navy officers in that picture.

Oh that besom thing was just to say that cleaning might have been done just like in houses with wooden floor on land.

In any case and with any sort of reasoning the deck cleaning in Gaop seems to be an axiom and the bare foot sailors were only occasionally seen during the age of sail.

Edited January 30, 2013 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Mission]

My point was that the presence of a bucket doesn't prove anything. It just means that there was a bucket there. It's reason for being there cannot be inferred.

Each cannon has a swab which is occasionally wet down to clean and cool the cannon between firings. (I know. I have done this while on cannon duty at reenactments.) So there would likely be buckets where ever there were guns to wet the cannon swabs. Remember pirates put cannons on the main deck. They sometimes drilled holes in the sides of the lower decks and put them there. They put cannons whereever they could if they get them and had enough people to man them.

It could have been there because he was cleaning the deck. It could just as like have been at hand because it was there for the cannon swabs. It could have been a piss bucket (they had them, you know.) It could have been used to haul dust as was stated in those regulations I earlier cited. It could have been there for a dozen different reasons. Point being, without context in this case, you can't conclude the purpose of that bucket.

[Coastie04]

Without having more of that quote, I've got a question. The "said Dutch ship" that they were arguing about...was it in sight at the time, or were they arguing about a previous sighting? If it was within sight and they were arguing about whether to attack her or not, then I believe we can possibly infer (not conclusively, of course) that the bucket may have been there in preparation for action. However, as Mission pointed out, buckets were probably kept near the guns anyway, and they would have had plenty of other buckets available as well.

Coastie

[Swashbuckler 1700]

Well I posted already to one tread but: Here is the besom I told you about and since the sailor is realistic looking and the picture maker wants people to recognize the sailor there I think it might be said that it is likely that cleaning aboard ship was done with besoms as well. Still the sand stones are a question....

[Fox]

In that picture the besom may be symbolic.

Legend has it that following the battle of Dungeoness the Dutch admiral, Tromp, hoisted a broom to the top of his flagship's mast to signify that he had swept the English from the seas. In this case the Dutch appear to be sweeping the French from the seas.

[Mission]

Indeed. It would be quite strange to be carrying a broom and a knife (at the ready), while what appears to be your opponent is begging and cowering at your feet. "Well, that's handled. I think I'll go and sweep the deck now."

In other news, those are some awesome battle images seen over his shoulder.

[Swashbuckler 1700]

In that picture the besom may be symbolic.

Legend has it that following the battle of Dungeoness the Dutch admiral, Tromp, hoisted a broom to the top of his flagship's mast to signify that he had swept the English from the seas. In this case the Dutch appear to be sweeping the French from the seas.

Interesting. That makes sense.

And I thought the knife and the broom were there just there to underline the fact that the great French were defeated by rube Dutch sailors.

Anyway this all hints that brooms were used, at least, aboard Dutch ships....

Edited February 1, 2013 by Swashbuckler 1700

[Fox]

Anyway this all hints that brooms were used, at least, aboard Dutch ships....

Which is hardly surprising.

[Mission]

I don't think we'd get anywhere arguing that point. Ditto for using buckets to swab ship decks. It just doesn't seem to get mentioned often (if at all) because it's not of note. (And there, in a nutshell, is the problem of reenacting this time period. As well as many other time periods. :) )

[Captain Jim]

I would imagine that normal household cleaning measures would be used (brooms, mops, rags, scrub brushes), which brings up the question of soap or its equivalent.