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1513? The Admiral (Sir Edward Howard) was “much troubled in
victualling the Katherine Fortileza
, no provisions having been sent for
her. Henry had just bought the ship from the Genoese. The victualling
of the entire fleet had, in fact, suffered a complete
breakdown. The naval pursers had been left behind in London
to bestir the laggardly contractors and get things moving, but
nothing much had happened yet and what started as an anxiety
rapidly became a crisis. In his very first signal to the King,
Howard had said, “I pray God that he send our victuals
shortly” and by the time he reached Plymouth a note
of real alarm could be heard. He begged Henry, “for God's sake,
to make provision of biscuit and beer” so that he didn't have
to return to the Downs and let any French task force heading
their way escape. Still the provisions failed to show up, and
they sailed from Plymouth without them. Two days later the fleet
dropped anchor in Breton waters and he sent a message, “Sir
I beseech you, let ships resort with our victuals
into the Trade”.
27
th June 1522. Thomas Howard (Admiral) wrote from the Mary Rose
said, “We have but little victual on board.
We want the rest of the victual in haste”.
This was the third time that month which the Admiral had brought
upon the topic, and each time with more desperation than the
last. In the middle of June he emphasised to Wolsey the importance
of making sure that the men who supplied the ships' provisions
were paid £600 promptly, “without which, undoubtedly,
they shall not perform their victual ..” and
he was particularly worried that not enough beer could be brewed
in Portsmouth to keep his crews happy and willing while they
were at sea, “much more shift may be made at London than there”.
Six days later he spelled out the situation directly to Henry
who, he told him, “had been deceived about the victual
. The whole complement for 5,000 men, the beer from
Portsmouth and the rest from Hampton , was promised by the last
of May; and now the 20 th June, we have with much difficulty
been provided with flesh, fish and biscuit for two months from
Hampton , and we can get no more than one month's beer from
Portsmouth ”. As things stood few of his ships were victualled
for more than three weeks, some of only eight days
and most for a fortnight. He had been in touch with the victuallers
, who “say they have been hindered by the beer for
want of casks, but are as far behindhand with flesh, fish and
biscuit as with beer; which I think come from negligence”.
The
failure to supply the fleet with enough food and drink can be
taken as one indication of Henry's need to tighten his belt.
Victualling the King's ships – or his soldiers
fighting his battles ashore – had always been a major headache
of English monarchs. Nothing else had to be found and organised
repeatedly on quite so large a scale, for everything apart from
pay and victuals had to be supplied from scratch
only once. Howard's fleet in 1512-13 had the flesh provided
by rounding up animals from all the royal demesnes and parks.
They were driven to Southampton before being killed and loaded
into barrels either fresh or salted (for longer preservation).
Just as important as flesh was fish which meant dried or salted
stockfish which could have come from anywhere, or be in any
state when the seaman sunk his teeth into it. On one occasion
Thomas Howard reported that “part of the ships lately come out
of Iceland have not yet unloaded their fish and the rest stank
so much that no man not used to the same can endure it”. Seamen
were expected to endure both fish and flesh that had been inadequately
preserved on its way to them, which is one of the reasons why
dysentery was so prevalent in the fleet. The third great standby
was ship's biscuit made from flour and water, a maritime substitute
for bread which had a long shelf life, kneaded into flat discs
before baking and liable to attract small black weevils when
stored, but nevertheless carried in great quantity. The Anne
of London , hired to victual the King‘s
ships in the Narrow Seas conveyed to Dover “30,000lbs of biscuit
in canvass bags, the freight for which was £6, is not
paid for lack of money”. Sometimes it must have been baked in
the gallies on board the larger ships. Occasionally this dull
repetitive diet of fish, flesh and biscuit was supplemented
by cheese and even butter. Ships would carry fishing hooks so
that in any convenient lull in operations the ships company
could enjoy a rare treat of absolutely fresh food. These however
were departures from the norm which excluded fruit and vegetables
which were only eaten by officers and then at their own expense.
The
beer consumed on board ship was used to set men in good heart
and to slake their thirst. This was preferred to fresh water
that was also carried but could soon run out and was liable
to go off particularly in hot weather because the barrels were
rarely cleaned. The souring of the beer occurred for the same
reason but seamen would more readily drink this than putrid
water. No naval commander would dare put to sea without a reasonable
store of beer. It was of such importance that it was always
first in any complaint about victualling .
Thomas Howard in 1542, when he was about to take on the Scots,
Told the King's Council that, “I fear nothing but the lack of
beer”. He wished that 500-600 tuns be delivered on time from
the London breweries. Nothing else would do as substitute for
the English fighting man and soldiers certainly had come close
to mutiny on foreign campaigns when, faced with the same dire
shortages that seamen were so frequently threatened by, they
were offered a local wine to pump them up for battle instead:
this was a contributory factor to the failure of the Guyenne
operation in 1513.
The
seamen were in a slightly better situation than the soldiery
in that they were provided with food on a regular basis (God,
finance and efficiency willing) whilst the soldiery often had
to forage for their own food and for than for the horses of
the cavalry. Variable in quality and limited in variety the
seaman's diet may have been, but he could scarcely complain
about the quantity of his rations when they ran to 1lb of biscuit,
1lb of flesh, a piece of fish of similar weight and a gallon
of beer, plus occasional extras such as cheese and butter.
The
weakness of the system that Henry inherited was that it was
so open to abuse by people in the supply chain before the food
and beer actually reached the ships, and even as it came on
board. It was supervised by men who had little or no knowledge
of the sea and the requirements of mariners. Bishop Fox directed
such things in Henry's early years and was succeeded by Bishop
Stephen Gardiner his successor in the see of Winchester in the
latter years. Stephen Gardiner was known in the fleet as Simon
Stockfish maybe for obvious reasons. Both men were probably
picked for their proximity to England 's principal naval base
and their social standing than for any experience they may have
in naval matters.
The
system they were required to operate was known as purveyance
, whereby the Crown obtained its supplies from civilian
contractors at preferential rates, which were imposed without
any option. When the government budgeted for the provisioning
of ten ships for twenty-eight days in the summer of 1522, it
aimed to spend no more than 8s 4d on every man, just slightly
more that 3½d per man per day. The price that anyone
else would have to pay was variable depending on whether there
was a glut or a shortage, but frequently it could cost twice
as much. The artificially cheap supplies may have made it easier
to balance the Treasury's books but they were probably intended
to discourage profiteering. However they encouraged contractors
to practise various forms of deception that brought their returns
closer to the market price. Barrels of salted fish would contain
more salt than protein. Food that had been rejected as unfit
for consumption by a civilian purchaser would simply be recycled
for the King's ships. Less beer than had been ordered and signed
for arrived, the brewers complaining that they were short of
barrels because the empties from the last victualling
were not returned.
The
Crown was also very slow in paying its bills, which meant that
the victualler defaulted in turn in their
payment to farmers and other suppliers, who in turn were reluctant
to give of their best in any sense. On top of this there was
always the possibility of the ship's purser fiddling the books
in order to profit from some of the victuals
that he would have sold on the side before the ship sailed or
even after she returned. (Possibly all those empty barrels!!)
One way and another victualling was in a mess
and would not improve until some central authority was controlled
who could give it their undivided attention and who knew what
they were about and who could not be hoodwinked by the unscrupulous.
Such an authority was not established until three years after
Henry's death.
Pp238.
With the capture of Bouloyne in 1544 there were other victualling
problems. In November Dudley signalled that his garrison
had eaten nothing but biscuit for six days and drunk nothing
but wine and water for fourteen. He was briskly told that he
must not expect bread and beer to arrive in the harbour once
a week and that he must keep a more wary eye to your victuals
considering what difficulty and charge they are brought
to you”. The weather in the narrow seas was a significant factor
in the delays of victualling as it was in
delaying the fleet in its operations.
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