The forecastle, 1874

[ShipbuilderMN]

Completed a drawing today of the crew forecastle accommodation of the iron full-rigged ship Blair Athole, of 1874.   It was a pretty miserable place to confine 24 seamen for months, or even years.    They had to share the space with the anchor windlass.      When the anchor was let go, the forecastle was filled with clouds of rust, as the heavy chain cable flew up from the cable locker.     When the anchor was hauled in again, it brought with it all the mud and slime from the seabed.     No tables or chairs, and only lighted by 8 small portholes, or a stinking slush lamp.     The bunks were just wooden frames, one over the other.   They contained a canvas bag stuffed with straw, known as a "donkey's breakfast!"  Forecastles like this were common until the final days of British sail in the 1920s.

Bob

 

Edited January 11, 2017 by ShipbuilderMN
Corrected date

[Killingholme]

Sounds grim. I think Eric Newby summed it up quite nicely in his travel writing about his time on Moshulu- 6 inches of water washing across the forecastle, and bugs in the straw mattresses. And really professional swearing. I mean, top quality profanity- the sort of words you instinctively know are swear words regardless of what language in which they are spoken.

 

I remember working for a historic archive in a port city in East Anglia about 10 years ago. I was responsible for cataloguing and digitising official crew records. Out of interest I corroborated some of the crew manifests against census records in 1881 and 1891. Not only were about 80% of the crews foreign nationals (mainly from the Baltic states) some ships had 20+ men listed, but when the census men came around perhaps only 1 or 2 were 'in residence'. Suspect the rest were in the pub. You can't blame them, can you!!

 

Will

[ShipbuilderMN]

When a ship is in port, it is natural to expect most of those off duty to be away ashore, but not necessarily in the nearest pub.     There was often not much comfort on ships when I first went to sea in 1961, but it was an interesting life.      On our honeymoon voyage in 1987, we had  a couple of inches of water slopping about in our cabin during bad weather in the Bay of Biscay, plus the heavy movement of the ship causing items of furniture to be torn off the bulkheads.     But my wife always regarded it as something of an adventure , and not to have been missed.     But sailing ships were miserable in the extreme.     Very few will ever move themselves to read about such things these days, but it can be an eye-opener.

Bob