The Life Of A Seaman During The Stuart Age

In the reading selection Plymouth Plantation, a series of diary entries by William Bradford, Bradford it states, “In sundry of these storms the winds were so fierce and the seas so high, as they could not bear a knot of the sail, but were forced to hull for divers days together” (Holt 122). The seas were so harsh because of the

The Atlantic pirates were after gold or booty as Disney producers portray it to be, but this wasn’t there main goal, instead the Atlantic pirate’s main goal was revenge. After several centuries of poverty and being in the bottom social rank people took to themselves to solve their economic problems by going against king and machinists. Many of these pirates either had worked for this mechanist or for the kingdom’s fleet. As stated by Dr. Marcus Rediker “Merchant seamen got a hard, close look at death: disease and accidents were commonplace in their occupation, rations were often meager and discipline was brutal… Some pirates had served in the navy where conditions aboard ship were no less harsh” (Rediker 206-207). These severe conditions were the driving force for revenge at whatever the cost maybe. The previous experience of being at sea made these pirates very knowledgeable because they also knew that the American colonies were doing their own thing. Even though they were

As divulged to the reader, Billy Budd takes place in 1797 in the midst of the French Revolution. Throughout the mid- 1790s, Britain enacted new quota requirements to enlist 45,000 men in the Royal Navy, which was filled by means of volunteers, the Quota Acts, and most popularly, the impressing of men from merchant ships, as Melville demonstrates. Actual events that occurred in April and May of 1797 were the Spithead and Nore Mutinies, these incidents were offset by the despicable onboard conditions, the severe punishments and increasingly sparse pay while at sea. The pitying

“The company in England was convinced by 1609 that the settlers would have to grow at least part of their own food,”(page 5, Morgan). The settlers had to step up since Indian labor plan was not going to work well. The task they had to accomplish depended on their life. Settlers had to work from five in the morning to around eight at night. Winter conditions changed the time a little by taking off about 2 hours. Complaints started coming up about laziness and irresponsibility from the workmen. People started raising prices to survive. Men were always hungry barely having the energy to work. That was one of the excuses some men brought up to explain why there working they way they are. The author explains more indebt of the laziness and problems. Even men with large amounts of land could not afford labors. The government issued laws for problems with work and labor, “ Sometimes men were obliged to take on a poor boy as a servant whether they needed him or not. The parish might lighten the burden by paying a fee, but it might also fine a man who refused to take a boy assigned to him,”(page 7, Morgan). Things were falling apart.

Unlike the slave at the time if you found yourself on a slave boat and was a captain, you would have the best and somewhat safest job on the ship. The captain is described in document B, in a collection of Voyages and Travels by Thomas Phillips. The captain must have a reasonable live sections on the ship if the boat is a “Royal African Company” (Doc. B) ship. Since that captain need to be organized and neat to map and navigate were he is going he would also need a large clean space for that as well. In this passage the captain describes himself taking care of the ship and cleaning the floors, which would have been the crew work to do. He tries to stay away from saying that his place is large, but you can infer that from the

This book begins by describing all of the many different events that are occurring around the world during the year 1606, such as the opening of the play Macbeth and Galileo Galilei publishing a book of the observations of supernova in the sky. During the same year, in late December, three small ships were anchored in London’s River Thames waiting to depart to a new settlement. The three ships were the Susan Constant, the Godspeed, and the Discovery. The Virginia Company of London organized and financed the voyage to begin the new settlement of Jamestown. The crew is very excited to search for gold, silver, and other riches that have supposedly been found in North America. Their previous knowledge of the Spanish enrichment of gold and silver created a group dominated by money hungry, wealthy gentlemen. Aboard the ships were a great deal of gentlemen, but unfortunately lacked in soldiers and working men. The majority of the men were not accustomed to any type of hard labor, and this caused many problems because the conditions the crew were in clearly called for difficult laborious work. One of the few commoners on board was John Smith, a former soldier who proved to be a key leader to the survival of the colony. Although he was looked down upon by the upper class, he was a hard worker, and also very intelligent and a jack of all trades.

“I wonder if he will now presume to change the name of the other two ships, the small one who they playfully call 'the girl' and the third one” he chuckled, “called 'the painted one'?” He walked slowly toward a crowded corner of the shop, bracing himself on a nearby shelf. His rounded shoulders were still broad but age had tilted them. As he continued toward an opened crate full of iron bowls, one foot dragged on the wooden floor. “You would think that his mission was to transport a cargo of priests.” He said to himself. “Who would be deeply offended to ride aboard a ship named to commemorate whores; but what else can sailors think of when they have been at sea for so long? “ he rested again occupying himself by pretending to straighten brushes in a jar. “Must your Captain refer to these ships in such holy terms that daydreaming sailors mentally wrestling? The holy or the damned” another chuckle escaped from his silent thoughts.

Putting myself in the the position of a sailor back in that time I can see why many were attracted to the life of a pirate. The life of a sea faring man during the early 18th century was a grueling way of work. Wages were low, decease was rampant, ships were cramped, and discipline from officers was brutal, sometime murderous. The pirate life symbolized freedom and liberty and a brotherhood that stood for being “ one for

Before Christmas 1606, three ships left London’s Blackwall docks to establish a settlement on Chesapeake Bay, in the New World. The largest ship was heavily armed with 120-ton merchantman, carried seventy-one passengers and crew, including the experienced commander of the fleet, Captain Newport; a highly successful privateer. The second ship known as Godspeed followed with fifty-two men on board, while bringing up on third was the tiny pinnace Discovery, which carried twenty-one men crammed together trying to survive the voyage with few space and very limited supplies. Altogether, thirty-nine mariners and 105 adventurers set out to found what would be England’s first permanent colony in America.

In addition, the living quarters were tiny, “One person receives a place of scarcely 2 feet width and 6 feet length in the bedstead, while many a ship carries four to six hundred souls” (Mittelberger, “On the Misfortune of Indentured Servants”). Over the span of the trip, settlers were overcome with disease, dying before they could reach their destination. Mothers who died were thrown overboard with their infants. An account by an indentured servant gives insight into their lives, it reads,“tied up and whipp’d to that Degree that you’d not serve an Animal, scarce any thing but Indian Corn and Salt to eat… almost naked no shoes nor stockings to wear.” Indentured servants were beaten if they were disobedient to their masters, were barely given anything to eat, and barely

When most Voyageurs reached land, they were thoroughly disappointed. A great portion of the drive to become a Voyageur was the promise of riches and fame when they returned to their journey. Unfortunately, a great fraction of the time the Voyageurs returned to their birthplace to discover that their families were not loyal to them any longer. Wives remarried and had other children, and children all but forgot who they were. The cause for this to happen was only partially caused by time apart-the voyageurs were often looked upon by some as dirty men without manners, some eating their rations from their pockets or hats. But the separation is understandable. These restriction caused many complications. The average age a voyageur started working

I have the opportunity to meet people from around the globe. Working on the shipboard and travel by the sea can be a very dangerous situation. On the other hand, I can explore the nature and wildlife of the deep blue sea. The seaman's duties do not only involve how to live and survive in the shipboard but also to rescue life at the sea.

The Seafarer by Burton Raffel was written during the Anglo-Saxon period where the Anglo-Saxon warriors lived to defend their King, like in the story Sir Gawain and The Green Knight. One of the warriors speaks about his challenges and begins saying that his story is not at all joyful. It is a story full of pain and suffering. The story paints a picture of what it means to be “dislocated”, “set out”, all by oneself and how badly it feels. “My feet were cast in icy bands, bound with frost,with frozen chains, and hardship groaned around my heart. Hunger tore at my sea-weary soul. No man sheltered on the quiet fairness of earth can feel how wretched I was”.(Raffel 1) The powerful imagery in this stanza sets the tone that the narrator is trying to

I have often had a fancy for writing a romance about an English yachtsman who slightly miscalculated his course and discovered England under the impression that it was a new island in the South Seas… What could be more delightful than to

Have you ever watched the movie Pirates of the Caribbean? If you have you may or may not think that’s how the life of a pirate was in the 1700s. This is necessarily true though. I believe that the life of a pirate is not as glamorous as Hollywood portrays it.