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Sometimes the people who supplied the meat cheated the navy. ... the surveyor of victuals, Mr. Nevile, declares that, after the rate delivered to him, every pipe (a type of barrel) of beef should contain 400 pieces of 2 lb. each, whereas every pipe contains from 40 to 140 pieces short of that number, and none of the pieces weigh over 1½ lb., and some not 1 lb...Hertford and Others to Henry VIII (18 April 1544) Add. MS. 32,654. f. 141.BM Hamilton Papers, II., No. 230 |
The barrels with the cow bones in are marked with two sets of Roman numerals. One set are faint and one set deeply cut into the barrel. deep: CCCXl, CCCXll, CCCXlll, CCCXllll, CCCXXlll faint: XX, XXllll, XXXll, XXXlll, XXXllll This might show that the barrels had been re-used and had to be renumbered. Some barrels also had a TV brand mark on them. Perhaps the deep markings on the barrels show how many pieces of meat there were in a barrel. Along with the bones in the barrels, sometimes bits
of fat and even flesh had survived, and the divers could taste the rancid
fat in the water!!!
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