I am not sure I should be calling something a "Quickie" when it has taken a year to make the post, because that was when I was inspired to make Ship's Biscuits, this post and also some actual ship's biscuits.
I had done a photo walk around Stonehouse in Plymouth and I have already posted 2 parts of that walk, with the final part (or two) still to complete. Outside the Royal William Yard stands this sculpture or possibly more accurately, this memorial, to the ship's biscuit, which is long dead but which created an empire and resulted in English being the most widely spoken language in the world today.
It is a simple memorial which carves into stone one of humanity's simplest and oldest recipes, for the ship's biscuit can be traced back to mankind's earliest endeavours.
Flour, salt and water, create something that will sustain life in the harshest of conditions, and it was here at Royal William Yard that the making of the product reached its apogee. British sailors were not "gluten intolerant", if they survived.
Apogee - Apogee is often used in its figurative sense, signifying the high point of a career, endeavor, or state. This meaning developed as a metaphorical extension of the word’s astronomical sense, denoting the farthest distance from earth of an object orbiting the planet.
Read more about it here.....
Given the recipe, carved in stone, I decided to make my own ship's biscuits, and here was my flour of choice, being the closest thing I could find to what might have been used back in the 1740's. Stoneground, as it would also have been made at Royal William Yard a hundred years later.
The scales, below, are a modern addition that still give me the option to weigh in pounds and ounces.
Salter is a British housewares brand. Established in 1760, Salter has been developing precision products for over 260 years. Salter develops and sells products that span a wide range of core product categories, including scales, electricals, cookware and countertop. It is a market leader in kitchen and bathroom scales and one of the UK’s oldest consumer brands.
James Salter would have thought these scales that still bear his name were witchcraft.
The recipe instructions are simple. Add water to flour and salt to make a stiff dough. Roll it out thick. Cut it into shape, make some holes and bake until hard. Store in a dry place.
These biscuits were created for life at sea, on long voyages, to sustain life when perishable foods were not available. Although not a long term solution for a healthy diet, they kept sailors alive which was fairly important if you wanted to circumnavigate the world which would take months.
Newcastle Courant - Saturday 05 August 1738
Extract of a Letter from New- York, dated June 16.
"About ten Weeks ago one Gaspar Witt, Master of a Danish Ship, the Enighead, Burthen between 4 and 500 Ton, loaden with Cotton, bound from St. Thomas to Denmark, about 40 Leagues from Newfoundland, happen'd to spring a Leak, and the men went down and found the same; and after they had stopp'd it, going up again, happen'd to let the Candle fall amongst the Cotton (which they had pull'd out to find about the Leak) which took Fire, and burnt with such Violence, that the Men, with two Women and three Children, in Number 23, were obliged to betake themselves to their Boat, in which they were three Days and two Nights, with only 20 Biscuits, till they were taken up by a Fisherman, who carried them into Newfoundland, from whence the Captain and several of the Men came hither, and are now making the best of their Way to Denmark.
Sailors who probably dreaded lunchtime on board ship, little knew how worse off they could have been if captured by the enemy.
Kentish Weekly Post or Canterbury Journal - Saturday 21 June 1740
The following is a genuine Account given by Christopher Pike, Mariner, of Love Lane, Rotherhith, Mate of the Pazgarden, Capt. Nutt, from London to the Canaries, viz. That in November last the said Ship was taken off the Islands by two Spanish Men of War, of sixty Guns each, and carried into Porto Rico. The Captain and Crew were stript, and put into Prison, where Samuel Burrel, second Mate, and a Foremast-Man, were starv'd to Death, the Allowance being one Biscuit and a Quart of Water in twenty-four Hours. Such inhumane Treatment do English Sailors commonly meet with, when they are so unfortunate as to fall into the Hands of the cruel Spaniards.
Newcastle Courant - Saturday 23 January 1742
Extract of a Letter from WINKTON, near Christchurch in Hampshire.
" There came lately with Passes to be sign'd by Justice Perkins of this Town, several People, Men and Women, who went out in the Thomas and Mary, Capt. Barlow, a Letter of Marque Ship, of 460 Tons and 20 Guns, bound to Barbadoes, that was blown up some Time since in Lat. 13 North, whereby thirteen People perish'd, among them two Gentlewomen, Mrs Thompson and Mrs Ely, and their two Children, who had Effects to a great Value on board.
The Ship blew up forward, and was nine Minutes e'er she sunk, so that 42 of their People sav'd themselves in the Long Boat and Yawl, which they had barely Time to cut away without any Provisions, or even Masts or Oars, so that they were driving about five Days and Nights, when they were providentially taken up, just perishing, by the little Isaac, of and for Bristol, Capt. Miller; who himself, having had a long Passage, was but scanty of Provisons, and by such an additional Number of People, was reduced to the poor Allowance of a Biscuit a Day to each Man for some time, before he had an Opportunity to land 'em at Purlock near Minehead."
Ship's biscuits had always been regarded as more of a necessity than a perfect solution to a problem, even as far back as 1741. This is an interesting mention of an experiment into a possible alternative in that year.
Stamford Mercury - Thursday 03 September 1741
A new Proposal of baking Rusk instead of Biscuit for the Service of the Navy has been accepted and executed by the Commissioners of the Victualling Office, and Quantities thereof, by way of Experiment, put on board several Ships in his Majesty's Service, which 'tis hop'd will, and probably may succeed , it being much sooner soak'd and tenderer for the Teeth of Scorbutick Persons, than the Sailors usual Bread, the Biscuit.
Scorbutic persons, or sailors suffering from a lack of vitamin C, used to find that their teeth would go loose. Early symptoms are malaise and lethargy. After one to three months, patients develop shortness of breath and bone pain. Myalgias may occur because of reduced carnitine production. Other symptoms include skin changes with roughness, easy bruising and petechiae, gum disease, and loosening of teeth.
These are my biscuits without holes, below. The holes have a specific purpose, and even most of our biscuitey sweet treats today still have holes. The holes let out the steam, preventing the dough from puffing up and enabling a better drier bake. Moisture was the enemy of the biscuit. In fact moisture was the enemy of most foods that you wanted to keep for longer.
Also called Hardtack, the hardtack biscuits softened with time due to exposure to humidity and other weather elements, they became more palatable, so the bakers in the 12th century made biscuits as hard as possible. Because it was baked hard, it would stay intact for years if kept dry. For long voyages, hardtack was baked four times, rather than the more common two, and prepared six months before sailing. Because it is dry and hard, hardtack (when properly stored and transported) will survive rough handling and temperature extremes.
In 1665, Samuel Pepys first regularized naval victualling in the Royal Navy with varied and nutritious rations, to include "one pound daily of good, clean, sweet, sound, well-baked and well-conditioned wheaten biscuit". By at least 1731, it was officially codified in Naval regulation that each sailor was rationed one pound (0.45 kg; 450 g) of biscuit per day.
It is one of the great counterintuitive facts about world history that a country offering its fighting men such a food as this should end up ruling a third of the world. Austria had Viennese pastries on offer and they didn't even acquire a coastline. Of course no namby pamby, crumbly, buttery, lamination, of Viennese pastry could have hoped to survive the rough handling of the Royal Navy and anything that starts out so delicious and tasty can only offer disappointment months down the line, when stranded in the Doldrums. British ship's biscuits had the psychological advantage of starting off as a disappointment so you knew where you were from day one. The only surprise you could expect from a British ship's biscuit was the occasional weevil.
Whatever happened to weevils? With insect infestation common in improperly stored provisions, soldiers would break up the hardtack and drop it into their morning coffee. This would not only soften the hardtack but the insects, mostly weevil larvae, would float to the top, and the soldiers could skim off the insects and resume consumption. The weevils "left no distinctive flavor behind." Leaving some actual flavour might have been an advantage.
Weevils must by now be pretty much extinct. In fact it must be long overdue for our green elites to start a campaign of reintroduction of the weevil. They are already contemplating the reintroduction of the wolf, why not the weevil? Well, this gives us an insight into luxury beliefs of all sorts that are pushed on us by the powerful minority that runs western society today. Wildlife movements have always believed in a sort of animal bigotry, where cute animals with designer colours will get sponsors and their own Facebook page, while ugly, grey, slimy, or toxic creatures seem to fare less well on Gofundme.
If we reintroduced weevils, then our wealthy elites might encounter them in Notting Hill or Islington, whereas encountering a wolf snacking on their chihuahua outside Harrods is a highly improbable scenario when they would be confined exclusively to the Highlands of Scotland.
Such was the unsurpassed design success of the indestructible ship's biscuit that some have even become museum exhibits, displayed next to the equally dessicated bodies of 5000 year old Egyptian Pharaohs.
No this is not a newly discovered moon of Saturn, this is an example of what reintroducing weevils would look like. It is a sort of biscuit woodworm. Holes with additional holes.
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