The Role of the Purser

There’s been a lot written about ships at sea during the late 1790s and early 1800s. Most of the focus of the books, both fiction and non-fiction, is about the ships, how to sail them, navigation, cargo, how to fight them, and, of course, the men who manned them.

Other than the fact that they ate salt pork and biscuits, there is precious little about what they ate and the process by which food was procured for them. The U.S.-owned commercial vessels, Continental Navy, and then the nascent U.S. Navy followed the Royal Navy and the Royal Merchant Marine model.

Food for the vessel was purchased by the purser acting under the authority of the shipowner, the captain, or the Navy itself. He had a standard menu, knew how long the ship would be at sea, and bought supplies from local businesses when the ship pulled into port. The process was called victualling, and the document given to either the naval base or local agents was his victualling orders to the agents/businesses.

To help the purser with his estimates, the Royal Navy published a set of Purser Instructions, first in 1734, then updated in 1790 and again in 1808. The printed manual had tables to make calculations easier, as well as other information needed to help the purser do his job.

Royal Navy pursers were allowed to order an additional 1/8 of each item in their order for spoilage. So, if his calculations suggested that the ship needed eight crates of peas, then he could order nine.

However, if the ship did not use the ninth barrel, the purser could either resell it and keep the profits or order one crate less of peas on his next order and keep the money. The purser was also supposed to ensure the quality of the food he purchased. When there was no naval base or port where commodity prices were established with approved agents or suppliers, the purser was responsible for negotiating the amount paid. How each ensured quality at a fair price was up to the purser as long as he complied with the Purser Instructions.

Thus, the purser, even though he was an employee of a ship owner or an officer in the Navy, was also an independent contractor. A purser who purchased poor-quality or insufficient food could become very unpopular in a hurry. In some cases where a purser was not assigned or died, the duties of the purser were assigned to the Second or Third Lieutenant. Captains who did not allow pursers on board their ships did so in an attempt to minimize the potential for corruption.

For the sake of discussion, let’s assume the purser was competent and honest. How did he calculate his orders?

By the middle of the 1700s, the Royal Navy had established a “standard” menu along with allowable substitutions, which were included in the Purser’s Instructions. There were four daily menus, three of which were duplicated during the week. On each day, each sailor was given one pound of biscuit and one gallon of beer plus their daily ration of food in the following sequence:

Sunday – 1 pound of pork plus 1 pint of dried peas

Monday – 1 pint of oatmeal plus 2 ounces of butter

Tuesday – 2 pounds of beef

Wednesday – ½ pint of peas, 1 pint of oatmeal, 2 ounces of butter, 4 ounces of cheese.

Thursday – repeat of Sunday

Friday – repeat of Monday

Saturday – repeat of Tuesday

Given that the ship was at sea for months at a time, one can see how monotonous the fare was.

Next week, the advent of the “mess” and the term “mess cooking.”

Cartoon by Fen Truitt depicting the difficulty of eating hardtack.