During the Little Rock Razorback game, we took a trip down to Little Rock and visited the replicas of the Nina & Pinta that had docked downtown. The crew complement for each was 24 and 26, respectively. The crew slept on the deck, as the area below was for food and supplies. Today, the crew complement is 9 and 7, and the sleeping conditions are much much better. We were only allowed to tour the topside, but I would have loved to stomp around the ships and get a better feel of the lifestyle of the old-time sailors.
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| The Pinta is on the left, and the Nina on the right. |
The ships were actually covered in pine tar, hence the painted black look of the ships. The first voyage lasted for 7 months, with the actual crossing of the Bahamas being 33 days. During the Q&A session, I asked about how they stored their water for the crew. It was stored below, and/or purified with wine. The alcohol from the wine killed any bacteria. This could make for another very good way to purify water...a very watery wine, which was typically used in the ancient Mesopotamia region for safe drinking water. One of my college professors stated that it was very common for a person to go from the cradle to the grave without having drank any water.
You can read the food storage that the ships brought along for their trip. Pioneer Preppy will be glad to see lentils on the list. I was a bit surprised to see rice, lentils, and almonds on the list. I would be very interested to see the manifest describing the amounts carried though. Maybe it will be a research project of mine....
So, what are your thoughts?
Keep Right On Prepping - K
Ya know I can't find in info on when Rice was introduced to Europe in general and Spain in particular. I find it interesting they carried it. I mean it is wonderful stuff for food but I didn't know they were growing it in the 1400's I had thought (although I don't know why) that it was introduced in the 1600's.
ReplyDeleteAlmonds I know were common in Spain even during the Roman period.
I must check into this more.
Oh ay and Lentils is always a good staple too.
Yeah, rice was the biggest surprise on the list. The silk road might have been bringing it into Africa as an agricultural crop, then exported into Europe. Just a guess though.
DeleteI looked for lentils in seed catalogs and could not find them do you know of anyone who grows them in a home garden?
Deletehttp://www.harvesttotable.com/2009/07/how_to_grow_lentil/
DeleteI'm unsure about how to acquire seeds other than the grocery store. Have you tried planting those?
I wonder if it was really rice or if they misidentified it? Either way, very interesting.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this, K.
I was rice. I did my research and rice was introduced into Europe in the 10th century.
DeleteThey pulled in to Florida last Spring. They are really neat and very educational, Looks like we all had history lessons for our kids on our minds this past weekend.
ReplyDeleteyep, keep the kids engaged.
DeleteSupply's is an interesting topic for days gone past.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever read the Horatio Hornblower series of books? Sounds like you would enjoy them.
ReplyDelete