Feeding Nelson’s Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era by Janet MacDonald
The first modern study of the process of naval provisioning Explodes many myths about shipboard food and drink Written with the general reader in mind The prevailing image of food at sea in the age of sail features rotting meat and weevily biscuits, but this highly original book proves beyond doubt that this was never the norm. Building on much recent research Janet Macdonald shows how the sailor’s official diet was better than he was likely to enjoy ashore, and of ample calorific value for his highly active shipboard life. When trouble flared – and food was a major grievance in the great mutinies of 1797 – the usual reason was the abuse of the system. This ‘system’ was an amazing achievement. At the height of the Napoleonic Wars the Royal Navy’s administrators fed a fleet of more than 150,000 men, in ships that often spent months on end at sea.…