Seventeenth-Century Shipboard Food and Nutrition: The Ship Biscuit & Salted Beef Research Project

Abstract

The adequacy of the diet on ships prior to canning and refrigeration is a debated topic. To determine whether sailors were nourished or malnourished, archaeological and historical data were used to replicate the salted pork and beef, ship biscuit, wine and beer, and other provisions typically aboard. Then, a transatlantic voyage was simulated by storing the food in casks and keeping the majority of these in the 1877 tallship Elissa’s hold for 7.5 weeks. Representative portions of the food were analyzed to get a comprehensive view of 17th-century shipboard health and nutrition. The results suggest that sailors had caloric and water intake just at the threshold of being adequate. However, about 13% to 17% of their calories came from alcohol, displacing the intake of necessary nutrients and potentially leading to a plethora of health problems from compromised liver and kidney health to vitamin and mineral deficiencies. The shipboard diet was also deficient in vitamins A and C, and most likely thiamin. This diet also had excessive mineral values and was exceptionally high in sodium which negatively affects bone, blood pressure, liver and kidney function, and the bioavailability of vitamins and other minerals. Microbiological testing suggested that if beef was boiled for 30 minutes and then was boiled for 20 minutes, the likelihood of bacterial infection was low. The fresh water brought on board, however, may have carried diseases such as dysentery. The gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS) results infer that beef, pork, wine, and beer aromas would be considered evidence of spoilage today. In short, the experimental results indicate that the sailor diet was demanding on the body and only sustainable in the short term, especially if there was inadequate vitamin C. Given that sailor health, based on analysis of this diet, was likely in a precarious state, accidents or problems related to health, such as dysentery, were likely fatal for many. Although the results of this experiment cannot represent the food on every ship during the Age of Sail, the most common conditions were replicated so that the results represent the likely condition of foods on many ships.