Existing comment:
Life Between Decks (1650):
For a man-of-war's man, life on board ship centered on the lower deck. Not only did the gun crews exercise the main battery guns there, but even the foretopmen who worked aloft in the masts and rigging spent long hours below deck every day. This is because the lower deck served as living quarters for "the people," or the ship's company. It was here that the men slept in their hammocks when not on watch, and here that they ate their meals on tables interspersed among the guns.
When in port, British sailors were forbidden to go ashore for fear they would desert. Confined to their ships, they were sometimes permitted to enjoy the company of local women on the lower deck, also called the gundeck -- a practice that gave rise to the expression, "son-of-a-gun!"
The models surrounding this vignette are among the oldest in the Naval Academy Museum collection. All were built in the second half of the 17th century. |