Feeding Nelson's Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era - Softcover

Janet MacDonald (author)

4.07

155 ratings by Goodreads

9781861762887: Feeding Nelson's Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1861762887 ISBN 13: 9781861762887

Publisher: Naval Institute Press, 2006

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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. Despite the difficulty of preserving food before the advent of refrigeration and meat-canning, the British fleet had largely eradicated scurvy and other dietary disorders by 1800. A chapter compares provisions in the other major navies of the time, and the book concludes with recipes for some of the exotic sounding dishes, like lobscouse, prepared by naval cooks. While Feeding Nelson's Navy contains much of value to the historian, it is written with a popular touch that will enthral anyone with an interest in life at sea in the age of sail. Popular and succesful in hardback, this title is now issued in this paperback edition.

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Review:

MacDonald cuts through a haze of grog and rum-fumed myth to establish what exactly was issued to British sailors in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Indeed, she does not shrink from telling tales of when the system badly went wrong, of mutinies and near mutinies over abysmal rations. But she also carefully builds a more rounded picture of what men ate (lobscouse, burgoo, and duff), how it was cooked, where it came from, and how it compared to the diet of Britons safe at home. While not enough to make you seek out your local press gang, the Royal Navy s rations, when shown in MacDonald s objective light, were not foul and were not skimpy. Fit for heroes? Perhaps not, but they kept heroes fit. And just for fun, some of the heartiest recipes are included. --Good Book Guide

About the Author:

JANET MACDONALD has written a number of books on cookery subjects, and this one is based on her current research into naval victualling for a higher degree at the Greenwich Maritime Institute. She was recently a featured historian on BBC Radio 4's Food At Sea programme.

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