MovieChat Forums > Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) Discussion > The food the rest of the crew ate...

The food the rest of the crew ate...

posted 2 years ago by zmeyka (255)
1 reply | jump to latest

We got to see some of the food the rest of the crew ate, the first time, was a white pile dish which was probably fish mixed with mash potatoes..or something like it.
Then we see on the hot day, them eating some sort of brown gravy with a big chunk per plate, looked like a huge bone with little meat on it.. looked gross...
However, the officers got a better decent looking meal..!
We then see them throw their catch of the day near the islands, huge fish which seemed to make the crew happy.
While on the Galapogos, we see people coming back from a hunt with 3 boars transported on sticks, guess they got fresh meat.

[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

There's a lot about the naval food in the books, and it's actually interesting! The crew would be served dinners of salt beef (beef preserved in barrels of salt and boiled until edible) with hardtack biscuits, as well as peas and oatmeal and other cheap portable food. For the working-class crew, this was probably the most meat they'd ever eaten in their lives. And maybe the most alcohol, they'd be served grog with every dinner, which was a mix of water, rum, and lime juice (to prevent scurvy - Vit. C deficiency).

Officers who could afford it would bring their own food stores or booze along, but they'd run out on long voyages and end up eating the same boiled salt beef and hardtack as the crew.