"Feeding Nelson's Navy" Topic

"This celebration of the Georgian sailor's diet reveals how the navy's administrators fed a fleet of more than 150,000 men, in ships that were often at sea for months on end and that had no recourse to either refrigeration or canning. Contrary to the prevailing image of rotten meat and weevily biscuits their diet was a surprisingly hearty mixture of beer, brandy, salt beef and pork, pease, butter, cheese, hard biscuit and the exotic sounding lobscouse, not to mention the Malaga raisons, oranges, lemons, figs, dates and pumpkins which were available to ships on far-distant stations. In fact, by 1800 the British fleet had largely eradicated scurvy and other dietary disorders. While this scholarly work contains much of value to the historian, the author's popular touch makes this an enthralling story for anyone with an interest in life at sea in the age of sail."

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Amicalement
Armand

I have this book. It goes a LONG ways towards disproving the "horrible rotten food of the Royal Navy" stories that come out of the period. She explains that a lot of those stories seem to come from condemned RN food that was bought up by merchant ship captains and fed to their crews.

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand

Yes, I've read a fair amount on the period and, aside from instances of scurvy, venereal diseases & Yellow fever Royal Navy sailors were generally quite healthy compared to the land based population and this could only have come about with good diet being a significant factor.

So… they have the best cooks? (smile)

How they managed to made that on that kind of ships… withour refrigerators… cleaning space for the food… etc…

Maybe man were more strong on those times?

Amicalement
Armand