Mayflower Meals and Manners

Sometimes it was better not to look. Rats and cockroaches were all over. Little insects—weevils, maggots, and grubs— chewed tunnels into the ship's biscuits. Some of the Pilgrims preferred to eat at night. In the dark, they couldn't see the bugs crawling on their food.

For sixty or sixty-six days the Pilgrims sailed across the Atlantic Ocean. The wind howled. The waves crashed against the sides of the little, crowded wooden boat. It was al- ways noisy. Inside the boat, people moaned, coughed, and shouted to make themselves heard against the roar of the wind and the creaking of the sails.

They were always cold and wet. Spray from the big ocean waves soaked everything on deck. Soon their clothes became stiff with salt left by the seawater.

There were a hundred and two passengers. Most of them slept crowded together in the main cabin. The ceiling was low. Anyone over five feet tall had to walk bent over.

Each person had only a tiny space in which to sleep, prepare food, eat, wash, and pile all his or her belongings. And everyone had tried to bring enough things to last a lifetime!

Blankets, rugs, pillows, quilts, sheets, furniture, boxes of clothes and linens, dishes, tools, guns, armor, cradles, pots, pans, and special keepsakes were piled up to the ceiling. The cabin was jammed!

It was hard for anyone even to move in there. And it smelled terrible. Hardly anybody washed— there wasn't enough fresh water. And even people who their hands and faces didn't wash their clothes. Most people never changed at all. They wore the same clothes for the whole trip.

The Saints and Strangers scratched and scratched, because lice and fleas lived in everyone's clothes and hair. There was no way to get rid of them.

Besides human beings and bugs, the Mayflower carried other passengers. Live rabbits, chickens, geese, and ducks were kept in a rowboat that was lashed to the deck.

There were also pigs, goats, and sheep on board. But no one got to eat them. The settlers hoped that these few animals would become the parents of large flocks and herds in America.

What did the Pilgrims eat during their long voyage? Most of the food on the Mayflower was cold and dry. There were moldy cheese and dried peas. Salty beef and dried fish.

And there were ship's biscuits-as hard as rocks. Hundreds of these biscuits had been carried onto the boat before it sailed. They were stacked in huge piles.

Ship's biscuits were made of wheat flour, pea flour, and water. They were flat and round, the size of dinner plates.

The stale biscuits were almost impossible to chew. But somehow people sucked and nibbled them down.

Cheese was different. It didn't get as hard as the biscuits. Instead, the cheese quickly turned green and moldy.

Dried peas were stored in sacks so the mice and rats that dashed all over the ship wouldn't eat them. The settlers ate some of the peas on board, saving the rest to eat when they got to America.

There were also sacks of turnips, parsnips, onions, and cabbages. Vegetables kept pretty well. They just got a little hard on the outside and a little soft on the inside.

Some days the Pilgrims ate smoked herring or dried, salted codfish. Other days they had pork or beef. Because fresh meat would have spoiled quickly, the Pilgrims' meat was preserved in salt and packed in barrels.

One of their favorite meats was neat's tongue— the tongue of an ox. They brought big boxes of dried ox tongues to eat on the trip.

Other boxes held spices— ginger, cinnamon, mace, cloves, nutmeg, and green ginger. These were very expensive, but the Pilgrims loved spicy food. And spices could cover up the bad taste of food that had begun to rot.

To wash down their salty, spicy meals, the Pilgrims drank beer, ale, wine, and even gin and brandy. They hated water. Even children drank beer.

Everyone on the Mayflower needed to drink often. When a family crouched around its mattress at meal-time, it was usually looking at cold, dry, salty food.

But sometimes it was better not to look. Rats and cockroaches were all over. Little insects—weevils, maggots, and grubs— chewed tunnels into the ship's biscuits.

Some of the Pilgrims preferred to eat at night. In the dark, they couldn't see the bugs crawling on their food.

Once in a while, each family got a treat: the chance to cook a hot dinner. Cooking usually wasn't allowed on the Mayflower. A stray spark could start a fire that might burn whole ship. up the

But there were three small, iron boxes filled with sand for people to cook in. These were called fire-boxes. The settlers took turns using them.

Sometimes they made labscouse— a thick soup of dried peas mixed with water and chunks of salty beef. The hot soup tasted delicious. And you could dip your hard biscuit into the soup to soften it. Little fat dumplings, called doughboys, were made by frying bits of wet flour in pork fat.

A real treat was burgoo-hot oatmeal and mo- lasses. Another was plum duff. Duff was a fatty pud- ding. Plum duff had raisins or dried prunes mixed in.

Hot food was special. Aboard the Mayflower, nobody had it often. Usually the Pilgrims ate cold, dry, buggy meals, drank beer, and dreamed of how well they would eat when they finally reached America, the land of plenty. — From "Eating the Plates" by L.R. Penner

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