Routine (1)

The daily routine onboard a warship at sea would depend upon your skills, if you had been 'pressed' these would have been ascertained when you were assessed by the First Lieutenant and Boatswain. He would decide, depending on your previous experience, what your position would be onboard. If you had no experience of sea life whatsoever you would be classed as a 'landsman'; this was the lowest of the low and you would carry out general 'domestic' type duties, these were also referred to as 'waisters' or 'idlers'. If you had a skill, i.e. carpenter, sailmaker or you had been to sea before, then you would be given a task more fitting your skills. Most highly prized were the men who had had experience in setting sails, steering the ship or firing of the great guns.

For the skilled seamen, the day was governed by a series of 'watches'. For this the crew were divided into two watches; larboard (port) and starboard. Each would take their turn carrying out the duties of the 'watch on deck', setting and trimming sails, steering and navigating the ship, and keeping lookout from high up in the crosstrees of the masts for other ships and hazards. The day was divided into watches as follows: -

The larboard and starboard watches took each watch in turn; the two dog watches were created to avoid one watch getting the same periods on watch every day.

The ship's day started at midday; this was when the ship's speed and the sun's altitude would be ascertained. The Hand Log would be used to derive the speed in knots. The Master, Master's Mates and Midshipmen would use their sextants and quadrants to estimate the sun's highest point in the sky; noon was reported when the sun reached its meridian.

The clock would then be put forward or back as necessary, and the ship's day would start. To assist the rest of the crew to know what time of day it was a system of bells were used. A senior man would have two sandglasses, a half-hour and four-hour. At the start of the watch both glasses would be started; when the half-hour glass ran out, it would be restarted and a bell on the forecastle would be struck once, when it ran out again, it would be restarted and the bell struck twice. This then would be repeated until the four-hour glass ran out; this would mean eight bells, the end of the watch, and the whole process would start again.

Although the ship's day started at 1200 noon, the domestic day started much earlier. The idlers, those that did not keep watches, were called at 5.30am. They would then start to scrub the lower decks with 'holystone', large blocks of sandstone, which required them to roll up their trousers and get down on their knees and scour the deck with sand and the bible sized blocks. They would also polish the brass and copper fitments with brick dust.

The cook and his mates had been up since 5am lighting the galley range preparing for the days cooking. The time that the men not on watch were raised from their slumbers could vary from ship to ship. Most common time was 'six bells' or 7am, the boatswains mates would go to each of the decks blowing on their boatswains calls and cries of "All hands ahoy" followed by "Up all hammocks ahoy". The men would then tumble out of their hammock barely awake, but fearful of the fact that if they didn't, they would have the hammock cut down with them still inside.

They then dressed, if they hadn't slept in their clothes, and lash up their hammocks in the prescribed method. Care would be taken in this because they had to be the correct size, in order to pass through a measuring hoop before they were stowed for the day in the hammock netting around the upper deck. At 8 o'clock the crew would be called for their first meal of the day, breakfast; they had not eaten anything since their last meal which could have been a few 'ships biscuits' up to 14 hours ago. As with all meals, it was considered to be one of the highlights of their day, it usually consisted of 'burgoo' a rough porridge sweetened with molasses, or cocoa and ships biscuits from that day's ration. As many men as possible would take their meals at the same time, even the watch on deck would be reduced to just a few key persons, the helmsman, lookouts etc.

When breakfast was finished, those on watch returned to their duties on the upper deck. The watch below worked their parts of ship. The cooks of each mess collected that day's victuals from the stores below, this was then prepared, ensuring that it arrived in the galley in time to be cooked. Meanwhile the waisters and idlers carried out the mundane tasks of the ship, pumping the bilges using the chain pumps on the lower gun deck, or maybe washing the overhead beams with vinegar to disinfect the insides of the ship.

At 11 o'clock punishments for serious offences were carried out on the quarterdeck. The ship's Captain would award a certain number of lashes. It was compulsory that everyone witness the punishment as a warning to all. When some poor soul had incurred the wrath of the Captain he would be flogged with the 'Cat o' Nine Tails' then taken to the tender mercies of the surgeon, who would 'cure' his pain by applying vinegar and brown paper or salt to his lacerated back.