On late 17th century sailing ships, what did physical work include?

Question

On late 17th century sailing ships, what did physical work include?

Answer 1

It included also sleep deprivation. Part of the ship's company was always on duty, standing watch 24/7. Every other night you worked a four hour shift, if you were lucky and not called out on deck for trimming sails. Other ordinary tasks had to be done round the clock: steering, pumping, look-out, time-keeping, fire-watch, etc.

Sunday morning was the only time the normal routine might be suspended an hour or so for church service. The Captain read the bible and delivered some remarks; the sailors stood respectfully..

There was a lot or education and testing that had to done, teaching the younger the necessary skills to man a ship, from cooking to carpentry to deck work to navigation as well as mundane tasks like line-handling, cleaning/painting, sail repair. Crews had ranks and officers, and every one was expected to better one's self, and be prepared to do many other tasks beyond the daily ones. There was division of labor within the crew, and one's specialty had to be mastered. Berths and salary depended the sailor's

time at sea and skills obtained.

  Sailors had to care for their personal needs as well, washing and repairing clothes for one.There might be an hour or so leisure time after the evening meal. And, ship's crews were kept to fixed schedules, sleep, eat, work, and maintain the ship were task done in common.

Answer 2

Working in the rigging, loading and unloading cargo, cooking food, keeping the ship clean. Men were fed over 5,000 calories a day from what I once heard. Very rough life. Disease was common and that weakened many sailors abilities to work over long periods.

Answer 3

Pretty much all work was physical - - - a sailing ship is like a living creature heaving & moving with wind & waves - - - the propulsion being sails a man had to be prepared to scamper up ropes to incredible heights and there were no excuses for being afraid of heights!  One had to let loose and haul in sails, heavy canvas sheets weighing several hundred pounds, in all sorts of weather.  

Let us go back to the beginning;  daylight, after a night spent sleeping in a hammock a few inches below the sweaty stinking reeking body of fellow seaman in the bowels of the ship, one is awakened at dawn.  One immediately swabs the deck; this involves cold seawater and heavy stones, while one man throws buckets of water on deck, another man squats and scrubs the deck.  Then it is off to breakfast on hardtack crawling with worms, actuall old salts see the worms as a treat - - - - Meat!!!!!  

The day is spent hauling in and loosening 'sheets,' the sails.  This involves scapering up ropes to the top of the mast.  The tallest mast is fifty to seventy feet above the deck and the motion is like a modern roller coaster.

Here is a 'funny' one.  You have seen those movies where a man is leaisurely twisting the ship's wheel.  HAH>>>!!!!!  There were no hydraulics in those days.  The ship's wheel was link to the tiller/rudder by chains and it was a backbreaking task requiring both strength and finesse.  Fighting the current, the wind, often two men or in a storm three men had to man handle the wheel.

Man the pumps:  sailing ships leaked like a sieve and many required constant pumping utilizing a device like a fireplace bellows.  Backbreaking strenuous work often deep inside the ship, squatting in the foul cold slimey water in the bilges.  Many a time captured prisioners were given this chore.

Now suppose your ship has cannons.  Unwieldy beasts atop wooden wheels they weighed from a friendly 500 lbs to over 1,500 pounds.  It took a crew of four to eight men to tug them away from the gun ports, once again recall the ship is heaving & slithering about, and it took four to eight men to push the cannon back into place.  Since the cannons were unqieldly and since most ships officers were harsh and unrelenting one was expected to tend to the task of loading and running out the guns swiftly.  So if you were a bit slow or clumsy you might suffer a crushed foot or a broken leg.

Oh and during the heat of battle the ropes holding a cannon in place might be severed thus a loose cannon would be careening around mowing down men!!

Say you age ten or so - - - you are employeed as a 'Ships Monkey.'  You are expected to carry charges of powder and nine to twelve pound cannon balls from deep in the ship up to the gun deck.  And did I mention that many ships were cramped and doorways were not only shorter than a man's head but had a lip on the bottom.  This still bedevils a sailor; you have to step up while ducking your head down!!  Trust me it is not easy - - - a newbie bangs his shins while smashing his head- - - ouch!!!

What else?  That just about covers it as I said every task aboard a sailing ship was a physical chore - - - old sea salts suffered many a rupture.  Hernias.  And those days - - - well there were no commercially made hernia straps so essentially you wore a tight diaper.  Your mates help you do this - - - you lay on your back while a friend strapped your crotch with a swatch of cloth - - - tight enough to keep your innards from spilling out!!!  

Peace////////////////\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\...

Answer 4

The most obvious work would be handling the sails themselves. This meant climbing up into the rigging and masts, and physically loosening or taking in folds of the sailcloth, and tying it back off. this would have to be done in good weather or bad, with no safety lines or catchnets.

   But the bulk of the work was much more mundane. The lower bilges had to be pumped, because even the bestmade ships of the time leaked. The older the ship, the worse it tended to leak. Ropes had to be repaired, replaced, or spliced, as the ropes and rigging were what gave the ship its capacity to control the ship. Also, even in day to day operations, other repairs had to be made. A part of a mast might have to be replaced, some railing, or any of a thousand parts of the ship fixed or patched up. Cargos were usually loaded to maintain a balance and improve a ship's handling, but conditions might require shifting those cargos. The decks were "holystoned", or scrubbed. Not to make the ship look pretty, but simply to reduce or eliminate splinters.

   And of course the daily chores of fixing meals had to be carried out.  This meant cooking when the seas weren't too rough; if conditions were bad even the carefully controlled fires could get out of control.

   A fighting ship, or Man of War, also had to deal with the cannons it carried on board. A captain would have to see to drilling his sailors and gunners, in everything from preparing the ship for battle (which meant tearing down partitions, stowing unneeded gear, furnishings, and other objects that could turn into shrapnel or impair the crew moving about), to the Powder Monkies(usually young boys) being given their loads of blackpowder bags to deliver to the gunners. The guns themselves were massive, and it took training to aim them, run them out, and go through the entire drill of loading and refiring. It was the mastery of this aspect that tended to give English ships an advantage. The English could sometimes fire at a rate of 2 or 3 shots to 1 against an anemy vessel due to their constant training.

  Finally, even in port, there was plenty of work to be done. Cargoes and supplies had to be loaded and unloaded using basic tools such as pullys and levers. All the underlying power came from sheer human muscle though, and even with mechanical advantages this took a lot of strength. Even raising a ship's anchor could take hours from first bringing it off the bottom to lashing it in place until it was needed again.

   On the plus side, sailors tended to lead healthier lives at sea. Avoiding disease except when it was in port, lots of physical labor, all helped. On the down side, there was malnutrition and the risk of things like scurvy and rickets, due to not taking in the right nutrients. And a 50 foot fall while taking in sail tended to be fatal, whether or not the person landed in the water.  But sailors often demonstrated an impressive artistic streak. When not at work or asleep, they might whittle, play simple musical instruments or sing, or find other ways to pass the time.