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 on the lower deck, complaints about food were never the primary grievance, and in general the distribution system was very efficient. This ?system' was an amazing achievement. At the height of the Napoleonic Wars the Royal Navy's administrators fed a fleet of almost 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. This was the responsibility of the Victualling Board, a much-maligned but effective bureaucracy that organised the preparing and packing of meat, the brewing of beer, the baking of ship's biscuit, and all the logistics of the Navy ? and on an industrial scale unparalleled elsewhere. Once aboard ship food and drink was subject to stringent controls to ensure fairness, and this book takes a fresh look at the tarnished reputations of Purser and Cook, before turning to the ways both officers and men were able to supplement their official rations, including keeping livestock on board. 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 JANET MACDONALD has written over thirty books, including number on cookery subjects. Her parallel interests in food and naval history led her to undertake a Masters degree, and the resulting research into naval victualling formed the starting point for this book. The first modern study of the whole process of naval provisioning ? Explodes many of the most-commonly held myths about shipboard food and drink ? Contains much of value to the historian, but written with the general reader in mind
