13. Ships Galley and Mess

A Galley is the cooking area aboard a ship. The Mess is the area on board ship where meals were eaten. Dining tables were normally hung by ropes to account for the rolling and heaving nature of a ship. A Messmate is someone you share meals with.

A pirate’s life was tough when it came to food as they went to sea for long periods.  Most pirate ship captains would pay particular attention to food quality as it attracted the better pirates to their ships.  When attacking ships of the line, the pirates would regularly steal the provisions, alcohol and dinnerware. 

For the first couple of weeks of a voyage there was meat, cheese, vegetables, eggs, and more. Chickens were kept on board for the eggs until the birds were eaten.  Cows and goats were kept for the milk until the food supply was depleted and then they too were eaten.  Pirates were known to catch and cook sea turtles, fish, and eel.  

As the weeks and months went by, the food would spoil, rot, mold, or go rancid.  Cooks would mask the taste of the rancid meats with plenty of herbs and spices. 

Ships on long voyages relied on biscuits, called Hardtack, dried beans and salted beef.  Boucan was smoked meat that was slowly cured on a grate over fire. Additionally, pickled and dried foods would be eaten during bad weather.  Most captains would not let stoves operate during bad seas for fear of fire. 

On Blackbeards ship the Queen Anne’s Revenge, salvagers did find a galley with a built-in cookstove. This would have been set in a wooden box lined with bricks and sometimes tin. 

Here, the pirates’ cook used large cauldrons commonly found on slave ships to prepare the pirates’ meals. Wood was used for fuel.  Later in the mid-1700s the caldrons were removed, and cast-iron cook stoves were installed, like the example at this stop.  The brick boxes would keep the hot coals from falling on the wooden ships floor. 

At this stop contemplate what it would be like to be at sea for months and what kind of meals you would be served?  Also enjoy a sample of Hardtack the most common staple on a ship.