A study shows that Georgian-Era British Sailors Lived on Ample Meat and Beer. History.com offers this interesting article:
Records show that 18th- and 19th-century British sailors enjoyed a high-calorie, protein-packed diet superior to that of most working-class landlubbers, who typically tasted meat, beer, cheese and bread just once a week...
The results were consistent with the Victualing Board’s records, suggesting that British sailors ate more food—and especially more protein—than their working-class civilian contemporaries, the researchers reported recently in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology...
Historical sources show that sailors sometimes supplemented their standardized fare with local produce while in port, the study notes. Corn and sugarcane were both staple foods on the Atlantic seaboard of North America, where sailors from Plymouth, England, are known to have served.To read the article, click here.
