CHAPTER III

OF VICTUALS

VICTUALS is a special ingredient in the great compound of the navy, and is ordinarily distinguished into two sorts: first, harbour or petty warrant victuals; or, secondly, sea victuals. In both the same species are allowed, with some small variation of quantity.

In sea victuals (which is the main) these particulars are the common allowance for each seaman, &c. : On Sundays and Tuesdays one pound of biscuit, one gallon of beer, and two pounds of beef with salt, for each of the said days. On Mondays and Thursdays one pound of biscuit, one gallon of beer, one pound of pork with salt, and one pint of peas; and for want of pork one pound and a half of beef in lieu. On Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays one pound of biscuit, one gallon of beer, one eighth part of a sized fish,1 half a quarter of a pound of butter, and a quarter of a pound of cheese.2 This

1 I.e. a fish of the regulation size. This was twenty-four inches in length for cod, and twenty-two inches for haberdine. A half-size stock fish was sixteen inches (Pepysian MSS. Miscellanies, iii. 416).

2 This is practically the same as the allowance described by Monson (Churchill's Voyages, iii. 347), and provided for in the victualler's contract of February 1637 (Cal. S. P. Dom. 1636-7, p. 452), except that in these the men are only to have half-rations on Fridays. The change was made in 1649 on the ground that the observance of Fridays was 'begotten by the covetous desires of the contractors for victuals, though coloured with specious pretence of abstinence and religion' (E. H. R. xi. 26).

with necessaries, drawage, and adge money,' is the allowance of the State-things so common and well known that I should not have mentioned them at all, had it not been in order to what I shall observe as abusive and fit for regulation in this branch of the navy; wherein I shall likewise follow my former method in the point of wages, and give my reader something referring to the State's, something to the seaman's, and something to both their losses, in a promiscuous manner as my memory and observation shall prompt them to me.

It hath been an old and great dispute which is the best way of victualling, whether by particular men as contractors at a certain rate, or by the State themselves upon account. I shall in this (as in all things else) desire freedom without offence in declaring my opinion, and yet submit to such as know better and are able to see further in the point. For my part, I always did and still do conceive the best and safest way is to victual upon account-I mean that the State should keep the victualling in their own hands.2 My reasons are these:

First, it is more honourable and suitable to the service of the navy that the State should victual than Necessary money' was money paid to the purser by the victualler for providing of necessaries such as wood, candles, dishes, cans, lanthorns, spoones, &c.,' at the rate of 9d. a month per man for ships carrying sixty men or under, and 6d. for those carrying over sixty. The fund available for necessaries was also increased by an allowance of 25. a month 'loading charges' to each ship; 4d. a tun 'drawage' for every tun of beer the purser received from the victualler, and 16d. for every tun of beverage wine; and ten groats a month 'adge money,' payable as long as the ship was victualled for sea service (Pepysian MSS., Miscellanies, iii. 421). In the contract for 1677 this is called 'adze money,' and 'adge' is a north country form of 'addice' or 'adze.' Thus 'adge money' was probably tool money.'

2 At the time when this was written the victualling was 'upon account' (see p. 124, supra, and Cal. S. P. Dom. 1654, p. 384; 1655, p. 282), and so continued until the Restoration. It then

private men, though never so honest, and the seaman will more readily content himself with a miscarriage of any sort of victual in point of quantity or quality when supplied by the State, than when supplied by contractors.

Secondly, the inconveniences attending contracts in so great an affair are insufferable; for if the contractor shall for his private profit provide bad victuals, or curtail that which is good, the whole design of a fleet may be destroyed, and this is not safe to commit to hazard by the temptation of that profit that doth or may attend so great undertaking.

Thirdly, let it be considered that all contractors drive their own and not the State's interest, and why the State should choose to do that by other men whom they know seek themselves,' and not by their own instruments whom they otherwise pay for their pains, I know not. It is true, that under the notion of names and distinctions lately crept up among us of Cavalier and Roundhead, malignant and confiding, disaffected and well-affected, the church and the world, that is to say members of churches and men in Babylon, or out of church fellowship, with I know not what more, the Parliament hath been made to believe that men of such a strain or cut, men so

passed into the hands of Denis Gauden, as contractor, and appears to have been managed by contract in the old way until 1668, when a modification was introduced, two responsible persons approved by the King being associated with the contractor. In the end, however, the other system triumphed, and on December 10, 1683, a commission for victualling was issued to Sir R. Haddock, Anth. Sturt, John Parsons, and Nich. Fenn, with power to contract for provisions, and appoint clerks and purveyors (Pepysian MSS., Naval Precedents, p. 48). Another discussion of the relative merits of the two systems is to be found in the Pepysian MSS. (Miscellanies, iii. 733), under date 1673 or 1674. The same question in its application to shipbuilding has already been treated by our author (see p. 35, supra).

I.e. their own interests.

and so qualified, would cut the knot of all arguments against contracts by their faithful and self-denying carriage in the execution of that service. But how

ever the Parliament were abused and misled with such principles for a time, yet I know it was not so much the error of the House, as the influence of some committee men, members of parliament, that swayed the balance in this point, and after one year's experience of these confiding men, they easily found where their zeal for the public lay, and whither it led them.

Fourthly, to descend from principles to practice, the late experience of victualling by contract is such an argument as might serve for all others, if men would be satisfied with reason; for (whatsoever was at first pretended to) I would only ask, whether ever the State did gain honour or treasure by the late contract. Nay, I might ask whether they have not lost much of both by it. I am sure it is easier to make out the last than the first, else I presume the late Lord Protector and his Council would never have altered that course.1 The seaman's round robins, letters, certificates, returns of great quantities of victual, new picklings, bakings, brewings, private satisfactions to pursers, stewards, &c., stoppage of complaints by compliance with generals, admirals of squadrons, captains, &c., sending victuals to the army into Scotland, Barbadoes, and other places, obstructing all complaints at the committee of the navy, committee of the admiralty, council of state, commissioners of the navy-nay, at the very

1 In October 1654 the contractors for victualling gave notice of their intention to resign the contract, and on August 27, 1655, the Lord Protector and Council established a victualling department under the navy commissioners, and by patent under the Great Seal constituted Captain Thos. Alderne victualler of the navy (E. H. R. xi. 43; Cal. S. P. Dom. 1655, p. 326).

2 I.e. underhand agreement.

1

Parliament House, whither they have sometimes gone, with many more knacks of this nature-have all spoken aloud the honour and profit, or rather the dishonour and damage accruing to the State and the subject by the late contract; yea, there is one thing speaks yet louder than all these, that yet cannot speak at all-I mean the blood of those hundreds, I might say thousands of men, that in behalf of their country went cheerfully and did valiantly, and might have done so still, had they not been pinched by shortness, and as good as poisoned by stench of decayed, unwholesome, and ill-cured beef, pork, beer, bread, fish, &c., insomuch that it was much disputed by men of good knowledge and judgment in naval affairs whether the sword of the Dutch or the want and badness of provisions did most execution upon our men in the late wars.2

1 =Tricks.

2 On the victualling under the contract of 1650-4, see Mr. Oppenheim (E. H. R. xi. 41-3). Although he compares it favourably with the system of Charles I., the complaints were very numerous (Cal. S. P. Dom. 1652-3, p. 35; vols. 1653-4 and 1654, passim). On May 2, 1653, the officers of the Seven Brothers certified that the fish on board stank, and was unfit to eat, and that there was a want of other necessaries, while the beef also was in a doubtful state (ibid. 1652–3, p. 577). In another case the beer was so bad that it had to be thrown overboard (ibid. 590). On June 16 the generals at sea complained of 'stinking beer,' of 'salt beer which causes sickness,' and of 'mouldy bread from Hull' (ibid. p. 428). On July 11, 1653, Capt. John Taylor, the master shipwright at Chatham, attributed the delay in the despatch of the ships to the victuals-beer, bread, and butter worse than I ever saw in the dearest times.' The men impute their sickness to the state of the victuals (ibid. 1653-4, p. 20). About the same time a similar complaint came from Deptford (ibid. p. 24). A captain brought his ship into Spithead, as the beer stinks, which has caused many men to fall sick and others to run, and the butter and other provisions are as bad as they can be' (ibid. p. 465; see also pp. 478, 480, and 582). It may not have been this which accounted for 'strange fits, like convulsions or calenture,' which seized twenty of a ship's company in 1654 (ibid. 1654, p. 580);