Transcript Life on a Tudor ship - Activities for the kids

Life on a Tudor ship
Sails
The sails were made of strips of canvas and had
rope attached to the edges to make the sails
stronger. Different kinds of ships had sails of
different shapes and sizes. Sailors would raise or
lower the sails using ropes, depending on how
strong the wind was, and the direction it was
blowing from.
Ship's cat
Traditionally every ship carried at least one cat
on board to kill rats. Sailors thought that black
and white cats were the luckiest cats to have on
board.
Sickness on board
Sailors were often sick during their voyages. The most
common complaint was scurvy. Sailors developed
scurvy because they were not getting enough vitamin C.
Vitamin C is in fresh fruit and vegetables and these
could not be taken on long voyages because they would
go mouldy. Scurvy made black and blue spots appear
on the sailor's skin and their gums would start to bleed.
Finally, their teeth would fall out. Scurvy was painful
and horrible and sailors would often die from the
disease. Sometimes over half the crew would die of
scurvy or other diseases on a long voyage.
2 MINUTE CHALLENGE!
What do you think the
sailors ate and drank on
their long voyages of
discovery?
Sailor's diet
The sailor's diet was quite boring and not very
nutritious, so sailors would catch fish and
seabirds to eat as well.
Livestock
Tudor sailors didn't have fridges, like we do
today. They brought dried salted meat that
would last a long time before it went bad. They
also kept animals which provide meat and eggs.
Goats and hens had to be kept tied up or in
coops to stop them eating the sailors' other
supplies of food.
Biscuits with weevils
Although sailors would sometimes eat meat and
eggs, the main part of their diet was made up of
biscuits called 'hard tack'. The name gives you an
idea about how tough and tasteless these biscuits
were. To make things worse, the biscuits would
often be full of little bugs called weevils.
Brazier
When the Tudor sailors did eat meat, it would have to
be cooked. This was done on a brazier, a box of sand
with a fire on it over which food could be cooked and
water boiled. The sand box was crucial. The whole ship
was made of wood, so starting a fire was always a risky
thing to do. The sand protected the ship from the
flames. Later ships would have had a bricked room
called a galley.
Barrels of water
You can't survive long without liquid and you
can't drink sea water, so Tudor explorers had to
take barrels of water with them on board.
However, water doesn't stay fresh for long and
after a while, the water in these barrels would
have gone bad and started to make the people
who drank it sick. It was very important to find
places to get fresh water on a long voyage.
Barrels of beer
When the water went bad, the sailors turned to
weak beer. Beer is alcoholic and alcohol helps to
preserve things, so the beer in these barrels
would have stayed fresh for longer than the
water.
2 MINUTE CHALLENGE!
What do you think the
sailors did on the ships?
Climbing the rigging
To adjust the sails, sailors had to climb the
rigging. This was a dangerous job and must have
been scary. Imagine standing in your bare feet
on a piece of rope with the stormy sea a long
way beneath you and definitely no safety
harness!
Crow's nest
The crow's nest was a platform near the top of
the mast. Sailors would have to climb up to this
dangerous perch to look out for other ships and
land.
Cannons
Most Tudor ships had cannons on board to
allow the sailors to defend their ship and
sometimes, to attack other ships. The cannons
were very heavy so they had to be tied down
with ropes to stop them sliding about the deck
and causing damage.
Sailor in irons
Here is a sailor who's been 'put in irons' as a
punishment. His feet are attached to an iron bar
and he can't go anywhere. Punishment on board
was very harsh, particularly for sailors found
asleep on duty or drunk on board.
PARTNER CHALLENGE!
Show off what you know about Life on
a Tudor ship by drawing a mind map.
Try to include as much information as
you can remember.
Life on a Tudor
ship
Tudor
Exploration