Men of War

Patrick O'Brian's little book on Nelson's Navy allows us to grasp something of what it was like to serve at sea, two hundred years ago. O'Brian explains the bewildering terminology of dog watches and carronades, of mizenmasts and studding sails. It's all very confusing to a land lubber, but essential to an understanding of an incredibly efficient maritime war machine.

One side of my wife's family hails from South West England, from Devon and Cornwall. Many of her ancestors served at sea. Lesley's great-grandfather died at the Battle of Coronel, off Brazil, in 1916, the Royal Navy's first serious set-back in over 150 years.

Life at sea was far from easy. The hours were brutal. The food was worse. The joke in O'Brian's 'Master and Commander,' made into a movie a few years ago, is based on how things really were. Jack Aubrey, the post-captain, asks his friend, the surgeon, to choose between two weevils (grubs) that have fallen from a ship's biscuit. Maturin, as a scientist, answers that there would be more nutrition in the larger of the two. Aubrey replies (of course) that one should always choose the lesser of two weevils.

Sailors just ate them. They also ate the larger white grubs, called bargemen, that appeared when the biscuits had deteriorated further. Rats, known as 'millers' because of their dusty coats, were caught, skinned, and laid out for sale. Everything was washed down with copious quantities of grog (rum mixed with water and lemon juice). It was a hard life with little sleep and less pay, until a 'prize' was taken. Unless claimed by the Crown, the value of enemy ships captured by the Royal Navy was divided among the crew. Naturally, the officers took the lion's share, but nevertheless, in a morning's work a sailor could earn the equivalent of 100 years pay. This didn't happen often. Unfortunately, poverty and privation were much more likely outcomes of life in the 'senior service.'

There's something very attractive about the thought of a close-knit, well-trained group of men, serving together over an extended period, whose lives were regulated by the rhythm of the sea. It's interesting to know how one's ancestors lived.

One of the oldest metaphors for the Christian Church is the ship. What does this teach us?

- there are tasks to be done;

- we all have talents to share;

- we must work together to achieve anything of value;

- the voyage need not always be easy;

- depend on the Pilot;

- be careful what you eat...