The American sailor is one of the best- fed men on earth, but this certainly was not always the case. In the first part of the 19th century, Navy chow was unwholesome and almost inedible. Those who were first in the chow line got the lion’s share and the later ones received very little. In 1842, Secretary of the Navy Abel P. Upshur resolved to set up a fair and equal ration for all hands, and prevailed upon Congress to enact corrective measures. The resulting “Act to Establish and Regulate the Navy Ration” allowed specific prices and items for each day to each sailor, with certain exceptions and variations. The bill was signed by President John Tyler on 29 August 1842.
This standardized mess included dried beef or pork, raisins or dried apples, flour, rice, biscuit, butter, sugar, pickles or cranberries, cheese, beans, tea, coffee, or cocoa, molasses, vinegar and “spirits”; to a weekly total, per man, evaluated at $1.40. If necessary or convenient, various items could be substituted or diminished. Soft bread, if available, could replace the nearly indestructible biscuits, for instance, and fresh meat in place of salted, peas in lieu of rice, sauerkraut instead of beans, etc., so long as the valuation was not exceeded. The weekly “spirits” ration was 1¾ pints pints of good rum or whiskey, at a price of 64 cents per gallon (not a fifth, or even a full quart). No officer or enlisted man under 21 years, however, might draw the spirit ration. Its value was listed to his credit by the purser. This was the real 100-proof article, not moonshine; but in an emergency, it could be supplanted by wine.
The sailors seemed to subsist rather well on this $1.40 worth each week. Navy food procurement prices were low and chow was plentiful. Tea, coffee, and cocoa were scarce and exorbitant luxuries at 80 cents per pound. Each tar was to do his own cooking, for which he was provided a knife, spoon, pot, pan, and half a bottle each of pepper and mustard, when he reported aboard. He was also allowed five plugs of tobacco (about two pounds) every four months. Of course, those who did not smoke or “chaw” got extra remuneration instead, as also did the teetotalers who wished to forego their daily 4-ounce tot. Commissioned and warrant officers, if they so desired, could commute their entire ration as extra pay, and dine “high off the hog” ashore, or buy their own grub privately.
Compared with current market prices, most of those for 1842 were rather humorous, and some were downright pathetic. Where nowadays can a T-bone steak be had at six cents per pound? How long would any of us survive on a regimen of 20 cents daily? Probably very few Americans could stand it for long. Good whiskey presently runs about five dollars per fifth, whereas 124 years ago, it was 12½ cents per fifth—or 1/40th of today’s average prices.
The act of 29 August 1842 heralded a tremendous improvement in quality and quantity over what had prevailed previously. The diet was far more nutritious and somewhat better varied. Considering the work to be done in manhandling the spars of our old sailing navy, however, especially when tacking into a wind, it was not excessive by any means. As an example—the three-decker Pennsylvania (120 guns) carried masting and yards of tremendous scale. The main mast was 132 feet
long and up to 42.7 inches in diameter, and on this was swung a main yard of 110-foot reach. Quite a considerable appetite could be worked up on rigging like this. Of course other ship’s yards were proportionately smaller, but nonetheless it was back-breaking labor requiring tremendous crews, and it took large amounts of chow and rum to keep them going. The fresh water carried in each class was: brigs and schooners—8,000 gallons; sloops—15,000 to 21,000 gallons; frigates—35,000 to 55,000 gallons; ships of the line—78,000 to 110,000 gallons; steamers used up to 24,000 gallons.
When the following chores are considered, four bars of soap per man per month seem inadequate.
Recipe for Blacking Standing-Rigging
To a half-barrel of tar add 6 gallons of whiskey, 4 pounds of litharge, 4 pounds of lampblack, 2 buckets of boiling beef-pickle or hot salt water out of the coppers, if the other cannot be had conveniently; mix well together and apply immediately.
Recipe for Gunblacking
Six pounds of beeswax mixed with one gallon of spirits of turpentine, one paper of lampblack, mixed well together, for twenty 24-pounders. (The beeswax to be cut fine, and dissolved in spirits before being mixed with the lampblack.)
— or —
Six ounces of lampblack, 3 pints of spirits of turpentine, and 3 ounces of litharge to be put in after the lampblack and turpentine are well mixed; add one ounce of umber to give it a gloss, and one gallon of bright varnish.
Although not covered by the Navy Ration Bill, the specified small stores of the 1840s are of interest. Per man, per month, there were four bars of soap, two combs, one shoe brush, one hairbrush, one thimble, one half paper of needles, tape, ribbon, white and blue thread, shoe-blacking, one half cake of beeswax, a pair of scissors, a pair of mittens, and a cotton handkerchief.
|
DAILY RATION |
WEEKLY TOTAL |
||||||
SUN. |
MON. |
TUES. |
WED. |
THURS. |
FRI. |
SAT. |
||
Beef |
1 |
|
1 |
|
1 |
1 |
|
Beef 4 pounds |
Pork |
|
1 |
|
1 |
|
|
1 |
Pork 3 pounds |
Flour |
½ |
|
|
|
½ |
|
|
Flour 1 pound |
Rice |
|
|
½ |
|
|
½ |
|
Rice 1 pound |
Raisins, etc. |
¼ |
|
|
|
¼ |
|
|
Raisins ½ lb. |
Pickles, etc. |
|
|
|
¼ |
|
|
¼ |
Pickles ½ lb. |
Biscuit |
14 |
14 |
14 |
14 |
14 |
14 |
14 |
Biscuits 98 oz. |
Sugar |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
Sugar 14 oz. |
Tea |
¼ |
¼ |
¼ |
¼ |
¼ |
¼ |
¼ |
Tea, 1¾ oz. |
Coffee |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Coffee 7 oz. |
Cocoa |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Cocoa 7 oz. |
Butter |
|
|
2 |
|
|
2 |
|
Butter 4 oz. |
Cheese |
|
|
2 |
|
|
2 |
|
Cheese 4 oz. |
Beans |
|
½ |
|
½ |
|
|
½ |
Beans 1½ pts. |
Molasses |
|
|
|
|
|
½ |
|
Molasses ½ pt. |
Vinegar |
|
|
|
|
|
|
½ |
Vinegar ½ pt. |
Spirits |
¼ |
¼ |
¼ |
¼ |
¼ |
¼ |
¼ |
Spirits 1¾ pts. |
WEEKLY PRICE |
|||
3 lbs. |
Pork |
.07½ per lb. |
.22½ |
4 lbs |
Beef |
.06 per lb. |
.24 |
1 lb. |
Flour |
.04 per lb. |
.04 |
1 lb |
Rice |
.03 per lb. |
.03 |
½ lb. |
Raisins, etc. |
.13 per lb. |
.06½ |
½ lb. |
Pickles, etc. |
.12½ per lb. |
.06¼ |
98 oz. |
Biscuit |
.04 per lb. |
.24½ |
14 oz. |
Sugar |
.08 per lb. |
.07 |
1¾ oz. |
Tea |
.08 per lb. |
.08¾ |
7 oz. |
Coffee |
||
7 oz. |
Cocoa |
||
4 oz. |
Butter |
.23 per lb. |
.05¾ |
4 oz. |
Cheese |
.16 per lb. |
.04 |
1½ pt. |
Beans |
.24 per gal. |
.04½ |
½ pt. |
Molasses |
.64 per gal. |
.04 |
½ pt. |
Vinegar |
.20 per gal. |
.01¼ |
1¾ pt. |
Spirits |
.64 per gal. |
.14 |
Averaging 20 per diem, or $1.40 weekly. |