Rations for men in the Spanish Armada 1588

These details come from instructions given by the Duke of Medina Sidonia, Commander of the Armada, April 1588.

Every day:
11⁄2 lbs biscuit or 2 lbs fresh bread
1/3 azumbre of sherry or wine
3 pints water

In addition:
Sundays and Thursdays
6 ozs bacon
2ozs rice

Mondays and Wednesdays
6 ozs cheese
3ozs beans or chickpeas

Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays
6 ozs fish (tunny fish, cod, squid) or 5 sardines
11⁄2 ozs oil
1⁄4 pint vinegar
3 ozs beans or chickpeas

16th Century Weights and Measurements

Do you know how food was kept and stored on board the ship?

Storage

Storing food and drink was a big problem on board Spanish Armada ships. During such a long voyage a lot of the food on board quickly rotted or became infested with weevils. Meat and fish were stored in saltwater casks. Often the food supplied was already bad. Barrels of fresh water soon turned bad and green as it was full of algae.

In theory each crewmember received a generous daily ration of food and drink. However this did not always happen, as there wasn’t enough food to go round.

Cooking

Sources suggest that there was no galley or communal kitchen on the Spanish ships. The crew of the Armada ships were divided into groups of 8 or 10 soldiers called camaradas (comradeships).

Each group got their rations individually and prepared the food themselves, using their own cooking utensils and dishes.
Wood and pinecones were used as fuel and wooden bellows kept the fires going. The cooking pots were made of copper and hung over the fires on copper hooks. The cooking areas were kept clean by sweeping with straw whisks. One of these whisks can be seen in the Tower Museum.

A variety of pottery and cooking utensils were recovered from the wreck of the Trinidad Valencera.

On display in the exhibition is a large olive jar, which would have been used to store olives and vinegar. It is estimated that for such a voyage La Trinidad Valencera would have had to carry 758 such jars. Various mortars and pestles were also found on board La Trinidad Valencera. These would have been used in the preparation of food or for mixing medicines