You know when I read something crazy I have to share...
I know we all have this perception of what it was like for sailors on ships in the 18th century, and a great deal of influence does come from movies like Pirates of the Caribbean that romanticize the lifestyle. Honestly, the drinking was pretty on par, it was not like one could safely drink water from casks on a ship...that just screamed disease and you do not want to do anything that might start an epidemic in a tight space.
In reality, it took a lot of food to keep the sailors fit enough to run a ship and so despite the ideas of hard tact and salt beef with weevils throughout being our idea of sea fare, they worked pretty hard to keep fresh ingredients on the ship...including livestock... ALIVE livestock.
When ships set out they would sometimes have dozens of cows on board. Can you imagine?
So you have hundreds of men, supplies, cargo, everything one would need to travel and maintain a ship on a journey... and some cows.
I just thought that was funny.
No comments:
Post a Comment