Historical accounts suggest that the diet on ships of the period included salt meat, salt fish and the infamous ship's biscuit: a hard baked mixture of flour and water. This historical evidence has been fleshed out by the study of sediments and bones recovered during the excavation. The archaeological evidence studied so far (only a small percentage of the environmental samples have been processed) has provided important dietary information.
>Nine of the excavated barrels contained cattle bones. The cattle were nearly full grown animals and the carcasses were halved and joints produced in standard sizes. Offal and marrow bones were excluded as these would decay rapidly and sour the barrel. One barrel of pig bones was found, as well as the remains of several dozen pig bones on the orlop deck, just forward of the galley or "Kychen".
These may have been hung, then halved or butchered into large pieces: fresh, salted or smoked. Headless fish, mainly North Sea cod, were found in baskets in the stern, many measured over a metre in length, and may have been dried or salted.
There were additional finds of mutton, venison, and fresh fruit, in the form of a basket of plum stones. One of the interesting finds was that of peppercorns, complete with one whole and one broken peppermill, similar in appearance to those in use today. There were several hundred plum stones in the basket, of five different varieties. The evidence favours the use of fresh rather than dried fruit. Of the five varieties represented, all could have been harvested before the Mary Rose set sail on 19 July. As they were fresh, it is more than likely that they were grown in England - making all five the earliest surviving record of these varieties in England.
Andrew Boorde (A Compandyous Regyment
or a dyetary of Helth, 1542) speaks of the virtue of certain fruits.
"Prunes be not greatly praysed but in the way of medysyne for thet
be cold and nastye. And damysens be of sayd nature; for the one
is old and dryed and the other be taken from the tre. VI or VII
damysens eaten before dyner be good to provoke a mans appetyde;
they doth mollify the bely, and be abstersyus; and the skin and
stones must be ablatyd and caste away and not used:"
Crews of this period were generally well fed, regulations in 1565 stipulated that each sailor receive seven pounds of biscuit, seven gallons of beer, eight pounds of salt beef, three quarters of a pound of stock fish, three eighths of a pound of butter and three fifths of a pound of cheese a week. It is unlikely that there were many vegetarians on a Tudor warship. There were occasions when the victualling system broke down.
Henry's ships seldom undertook very long voyages and were not provisioned to do so; they needed resupplying regularly. There are numerous historical references from commanders pleading for victuals, especially supplies of beer - English troops had been known to go on strike when the beer ran out.
While some evidence of dietary deficiency has been found in the remains of the Mary Rose's crew, this was mostly associated with childhood diseases. Scurvy, that bane of long voyages was not in evidence on the Mary Rose, most of the young men who perished on the ship were young and healthy.
The crew's food was cooked in a "Kychen" in the hold. This structure consisted of four thousand bricks in the form of a firebox supporting two large cauldrons. The fire was fuelled by logs which were stored nearby. Most of the meat and fish would have been boiled in these cauldrons to provide a stew, although a small bronze tripod pot found in the hearth could have been used to prepare individual meals for officers. Smaller pots, a pair of bellows, a hand broom and two ash boxes were also found in this area.
The officers seemed to have dined and supped from pewter plates and tankards, while the majority of the crew ate and drank from wooden ones.
At least eighty-seven wooden bowls, fifty-eight dishes and one hundred and forty-four plates were recovered, many from barrels near the "Kychen". The men's drinking vessels were stave-built tankards, often lined with pitch to make them watertight. These tankards were private possessions and have been found in many parts of the ship.
The food was eaten with a general purpose knife; fifty-eight were recovered, ten still in their wooden sheaths. Some of the sheaths are elaborately carved. Eating utensils also included spoons, but very few of these were found.
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