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On board ships exploring the unknown, the captain himself was not always an experienced sailor. Often his only reason for undertaking dangerous voyages was that he wanted to get rich, or to win political favours. He could be a merchant, adventurer, soldier, or gentleman of the court. Under his command were the pilot or first mate (who was in charge of navigation), and the crew (who worked the sails and rigging and made repairs to the ship while in uncharted waters).
The crewmen who signed on to these long and dangerous voyages were not the most experienced seamen, but large numbers of them were needed to help man the sails and to allow for large numbers of them becoming ill or dying. The ships that explorers were given were not always new, but the captain had to take what he was given. (back to top)
Sailors used to work rotating watches of 4 hours each. At the end of each half hour (measured by a sand timer), the ship's bell was rung to let everyone know the time. During their watch they would set sails, swab down the decks, and handle the rigging. When they were off duty they would sleep, or sit around and tell each other stories, and sometimes get very bored.
Often the crew were very afraid of what they might find when travelling into unknown waters, and they disobeyed orders, or mutinied against the captain and officers. The kinds of punishments used for disobedience were very harsh. Sailors could be dunked from a platform at the stern of the ship, or keelhauled, which meant they were tied to ropes and dragged under the ship from the bow to the stern. At other times they might have their hand pinned to the mast of the ship with a knife. (back to top)
Little cooking was done at sea. There was usually one hot meal in a day, cooked over a fire on deck, in a box filled with sand. It was not safe to light a fire while a ship was tossing about, so in rough weather they ate cold food. Food stores often consisted of pickled or dried meat (which quickly went bad) and ship's biscuits, which were made from flour with a little water to make them hard. (And that's not hard like a gingernut, it's hard like a dog biscuit!) By the end of the voyage, these biscuits would be full of black insects called weevils, or full of maggots. They also smelled of rat and mice urine.
Other foods included cheese, onions, dried beans, and salted fish or recently caught fresh fish. Without fresh fruit and vegetables, which contain vitamin C, sailors suffered from a fatal condition called scurvy. A huge number of early explorers died horrible deaths from scurvy, and for a long time, noone realised that it was caused by a shortage of fresh fruit and vegetables. (back to top)
Water supply was another serious problem. Fresh water did not always keep in barrels and wine turned sour - it was like drinking vinegar. Water often smelled so bad that the sailors had to hold their nose while drinking it! If you drink salt water, it will eventually kill you, so they couldn't drink the water from the sea. Fresh water was always the first thing the crew looked for whenever the ship reached land. (back to top)
If you look at the size of these early explorer's ships, and the number of crew they had on board, you also realize that the sailors were very crowded. Noone (except maybe the captain) had a cabin to themselves, and sailors often simply slung up a hammock anywhere they could find a space. On the early explorers ships, sailors went to bed lying on the bare planks of the deck, anywhere they could find a space. Only the officers had a bunk or hammock. It was always dark and wet and smelly below decks, and the boats creaked and groaned as they crashed through the waves.
When sailors needed to go to the toilet, they would sit in the latrines, which were sorts of wooden cages hanging over the rails of the ship. If the weather was bad, they would use the bilges instead, which made the whole ship smell even worse!