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Oh To Be A Pirate - Part 1

© Cindy Vallar

Life aboard a sailing ship was anything but comfortable. Seamen lived in cramped and filthy quarters. Rats gnawed through anything, including a ship's hull. Food spoiled or became infested and fresh water turned foul. One staple of most ships was hard tack, which seaman often ate in the dark to avoid seeing the weevils that infested the square biscuits. To soften hard tack and make it more palatable, cooks might soak and boil them in rum and brown sugar to create a porridge-like mixture.

Pirates restocked their food supplies by stealing from other ships' stores. In the Caribbean, they also caught turtle for fresh meat. Sea turtles were easily snared on land and were kept alive in the ship's hold until needed. Their soft-shelled eggs were a popular delicacy. Pirates' recountings of their adventures also mention fishing for dolphins, albacore tuna, and other varieties of fish. One popular dish was salamagundi or "Solomon Grundy." Similar to a chef salad, it contained marinated bits of fish, turtle, and meat combined with herbs, palm hearts, spiced wine, and oil. This concoction was then served with hard-boiled eggs, pickled onions, cabbage, grapes, and olives. Pirates also ate yams, plantains, pineapples, papayas, and other fruits and vegetables indigenous to the tropics.

They drank bombo or bumboo, a mixture of rum, water, sugar, and nutmeg. Rumfustian was another popular drink that blended raw eggs with sugar, sherry, gin, and beer. Pirates also enjoyed beer, sherry, brandy, and port.

When food was scarce, they resorted to more desperate measures to stay alive. Charlotte de Berry's crew ran out of food and purportedly ate two slaves and her husband to sustain them. In 1670, Sir Henry Morgan's crew ate their leather satchels. They recommended cutting the leather into strips. After soaking these, they tenderized them by beating and rubbing the leather with stones. They scraped off the hair, then roasted or grilled the strips before cutting them into bite-size pieces. The recipe suggested serving them with a lot of water.

Among artifacts uncovered in shipwrecks, pirate havens, and other areas frequented by pirates, archeologists have found glass wine and brandy bottles, earthenware beer bottles, pewter plates and tankards, and silverware, especially knives and spoons. Forks were a symbol of wealth and the few found may have been part of pirate treasure. Pirates, however, preferred to eat with their fingers.

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