What was the average age of a sailor?

Although the average age in a full crew was 26 years old, some sailors were as young as 9 and others as old as 52. Most of Constitution’s crew was born in Massachusetts, but there were also crewmembers on board from all over the United States, Great Britain, and Western Europe.

What was it like to be a sailor in the 1800s?

Life at sea during the age of sail was filled with hardship. Sailors had to accept cramped conditions, disease, poor food and pay, and bad weather. Men working at sea had much to endure; cut off from normal life on shore for months, even years, they had to accept cramped conditions, disease, poor food and pay.

What did sailors eat in the 1800s?

Sailors would eat hard tack, a biscuit made from flour, water and salt, and stews thickened with water. In contrast, captains and officers would eat freshly baked bread, meat from live chickens and pigs, and had supplements such as spices, flour, sugar, butter, canned milk and alcohol.

What is the average age of a sailor on an aircraft carrier?

The men and women aboard the carrier, their average age 19, tell the story of their voyage themselves, without a narrator.

How fast did ships go in the 1700s?

With an average distance of approximately 3,000 miles, this equates to a range of about 100 to 140 miles per day, or an average speed over the ground of about 4 to 6 knots.

What did sailors drink?

Grog

• Grog is any of a variety of psychoactive beverages, mostly alcoholic beverages.
• Sailors require significant quantities of fresh water on extended voyages.
• Following England’s conquest of Jamaica in 1655, a half-pint (2 gills, or 284 mL) of rum gradually replaced beer and brandy as the drink of choice.

How many teens join the military?

According to U.S. Army Recruiting Command, there are 33.4 million Americans ages 17 to 24, the Army’s prime demographic for enlisting and commissioning.

What was life like at sea during the age of sail?

Life at sea during the age of sail was filled with hardship. Sailors had to accept cramped conditions, disease, poor food and pay, and bad weather. Over a period of hundreds of years, seafarers from the age of the early explorers to the time of the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, shared many common experiences.

What was the punishment for sailors in the 18th century?

However, we must remember that 18th-century society on shore relied on similar corporal and capital punishment. If anything, naval punishment was less severe, for sailors were a scarce and valuable resource that no captain would waste; also, flogging meant that the punishment was quickly completed, and the man could return to duty.

What was a professional sailor like?

Professional sailors were skilled, daring and resourceful men. Their true worth was known to the state they served, and it was they, more than anything else, that gave Britain command of the sea. The social divisions of the navy were by no means class based.

What was life like on a ship in the 18th century?

The experience of naval life in the 18th century has often been portrayed as one of suffering in something little more than a floating concentration camp, where an unwilling crew, raised by the press-gang, was systematically beaten, starved and terrorised into doing their duty.