Life aboard a galleon - Q-files - Search • Read • Discover
Food—on a good day. The crew’s daily rations were as follows: wheat biscuit, a soupy mixture of beans, lentils and rice called menestra along with a litre of wine per man. Boiled salted beef and sardines might be added on alternate days or, when it was unsafe to light the galley fires in rough seas, cheese. Garlic, olives and onions provided vitamins and so helped make the diet healthier on a Spanish ship than that of sailors manning northern European ships, which lacked fresh fruit and vegetabl
