Men were punished, however, if they failed to do their duty, and put the ship and the rest of the crew in danger. In the modern age, discipline has become conflated with punishment, but in the 18th century it meant organisation good discipline meant that the ship was well ordered, not that the men were soundly flogged. However, there were further medical terrors in store - malaria and yellow fever could decimate crews in tropical climates. Other diseases, such as dysentery and typhus, were avoided through an insistence on keeping the ship, the crew and their clothes clean - this cleanliness became a Royal Navy mania, and kept the sailors very busy. We modern-day adventurers had to take a vitamin pill. So important was the avoidance of the disease that Cook resorted to disciplinary measures to make his men eat their rations. The lack of rum or beer on our modern voyage left our crew significantly worse off than our predecessors - although less likely to be injured while under the influence.Ĭook's determination to avoid deaths from scurvy, and his success, was a vital step in the creation of the British Empire. They would only be called away from the mess table in an emergency. Furthermore, every ship's captain knew that food was the primary concern of his crew, so he would have ensured they were well fed, and kept their dinner time sacred, usually allowing the men 90 minutes to deal with their tough rations. For them such regular, hot, protein-rich meals, together with a nearly limitless supply of beer, would have been a luxury.
A diet of salt meat, hard biscuit and sauerkraut was a shock to us, but our predecessors would have considered it superior to anything available on shore.
Our first contact with the alternative world of Captain Cook was the food. Historical research and a deeper understanding of the age provide a different picture. Although those of us who served on the Endeavour replica found some elements of this image convincing, we recognised that we should not allow our delicate 21st-century sensibilities to cloud our judgement.
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