Works of the late Doctor Benjamin Franklin/Precautions to be uſed by thoſe who are about to undertake a Sea Voyage
PRECAUTIONS TO BE USED BY THOSE WHO ARE ABOUT TO UNDERTAKE A SEA VOYAGE.
WHEN you intend to take a long voyage, nothing is better than to keep it a ſecret till the moment of your departure. Without this, you will be continually interrupted and tormented by viſits from friends and acquaintances, who not only make you loſe your valuable time, but make you forget a thouſand things which you wiſh to remember; ſo that when you are embarked, and fairly at ſea, you recollect, with much uneaſineſs, affairs which you have not terminated, accounts that you have not ſettled, and a number of things which you propoſed to carry with you, and which you find the want of every moment. Would it not be attended with the beſt conſequences to reform ſuch a cuſtom, and to ſuffer a traveller, without deranging him, to make his preparations in quietneſs, to let apart a few days, when theſe are finiſhed, to take leave of his friends, and to receive their good wiſhes for his happy return?
It is not always in one's power to chooſe a captain; though great part of the pleaſure and happineſs of the paſſage depends upon this choice, and though one muſt for a time be confined to his company, and be in ſome meaſure under his command. If he is a ſocial ſenſible man, obliging, and of a good diſpoſition, you will be ſo much the happier. One ſometimes meets with people of this deſcription, but they are not common; however, if yours be not of this number, if he be a good ſeaman, attentive, careful, and active in the management of his veſſel, you muſt diſpenſe with the reſt, for theſe are the moſt eſſential qualities.
Whatever right you may have, by your agreement with him, to the provisions he has taken on board for the uſe of the paſſengers, it is always proper to have ſome private ſtore, which you may make uſe of occaſionally. You ought therefore, to provide good water, that of the ſhip being often bad; but you muſt put it into bottles, without which you cannot expect to preſerve it ſweet. You ought alſo to carry with you good tea, ground coffee, chocolate, wine of that ſort which you like beſt, cyder, dried raiſins, almonds, ſugar, capillaire, citrons, rum, eggs dipped in oil, portable ſoup, bread twice baked. With regard to poultry, it is almoſt uſeleſs to carry any with you, unleſs you reſolve to undertake the office of feeding and fattening them yourſelf. With the little care which is taken of them on board ſhip, they are almoſt all ſickly, and their fleſh is as tough as leather.
All ſailors entertain an opinion, which has undoubtedly originated formerly from a want of water, and when it has been found neceſſary to be ſparing of it, that poultry never know when they have drank enough; and that when water is given them at diſcretion, they generally kill themſelves by drinking beyond meaſure. In conſequence of this opinion, they give them water only once in two days, and even thew in ſmall quantities: but as they pour this water into troughs inclining on one ſide, which occaſions it to run to the lower part, it thence it happens that they are obliged to mount one upon the back of another in order to reach it; and there are ſome which cannot even dip their beaks in it. Thus continually tantalized and tormented by thirſt, they are unable to digeſt their food, which is very dry, and they ſoon fall ſick and die. Some of them are found thus every morning, and are thrown into the ſea; whilſt thoſe which are killed for the table are ſcarcely fit to be eaten. To remedy this inconvenience, it will be neceſſary to divide their troughs into ſmall compartments, in ſuch a manner that each of them may be capable of containing water; but this is ſeldom or never done. On this account, ſheep and hogs are to be conſidered as the beſt freſh proviſion that one can have at ea; mutton there being in general very good, and pork excellent.
It may happen that ſome of the proviſions and ſtores which I have recommended may become almoſt uſeleſs, by the care which the captain has taken to lay in a proper ſtock; but in ſuch a caſe you may diſpoſe of it to relieve the poor paſſengers, who, paying leſs for their paſſage, are ſtowed among the common ſailors, and have no right to the captain's proviſions, except ſuch part of them as is uſed for feeding the crew. Theſe paſſengers are ſometimes ſick, melancholy, and dejected; and there are often women and children among them, neither of whom have any opportunity of procuring thoſe things which I have mentioned, and of which, perhaps, they have the greateſt need. By diſtributing amongſt them a part of your ſuperfluity, you may be of the greateſt aſſiſtance to them. You may reſtore their health, ſave their lives, and in ſhort render them happy; which always affords the livelieſt ſenſation to a feeling mind.
The moſt diſagreeable thing at ſea is the cookery; for there is not, properly ſpeaking, any profeſſed cook on board. The worſt ſailor is generally choſen for that purpoſe, who for the moſt part is equally dirty. Hence comes the proverb uſed among the Engliſh ſailors, that God ſends meat, and the Devil ſends cooks. Thoſe, however, who have a better opinion of Providence, will think otherwiſe. Knowing that ſea air, and the exerciſe or motion which they receive from the rolling of the ſhip, have a wonderful effect in whetting the appetite, they will ſay, that Providence has given ſailors bad cooks to prevent them from eating too much; or that knowing they would have bad cooks, he has given them a good appetite to prevent them from dying with hunger. However, if you have no confidence in theſe ſuccours of Providence, you may yourſelf, with a lamp and a boiler, by the help of a little ſpirits of wine, prepare ſome food, ſuch as ſoup, ham, &c. A ſmall oven made of tin-plate is not a bad piece of furniture: your ſervant may roaſt in it a piece of mutton or pork. If you are ever tempted to eat ſalt beef, which is often very good, you will find that cyder is the beſt liquor to quench the thirſt generally cauſed by ſalt meat or ſalt fiſh. Sea-biſcuit, which is too hard for the teeth of ſome people, may be ſoftened by ſteeping it; but bread double baked is the beſt; for being made of good loaf-bred cut into ſlices, and baked a ſecond time, it readily imbibes water, becomes ſoft, and is eaſily digeſted: it conſequently forms excellent nouriſhment, much ſuperior to that of biſcuit, which has not been fermented.
I muſt here obſerve, that this double-baked bread was originally the real biſcuit prepared to keep at ſea; for the word biſcuit, in French, ſignifies twice baked[1]. Peaſe often boil badly, and do not become ſoft; in ſuch a caſe, by putting a two-pound ſhot into the kettle, the rolling of the veſſel, by means of this bullet, will convert the peaſe into a kind of porridge, like muſtard.
Having often ſeen ſoup, when put upon the table at ſea in broad flat diſhes, thrown out on every ſide by the rolling of the veſſel, I have wiſhed that our tin-men would make our ſoup-baſons with diviſions or compartments; forming fmall plates, proper, for containing ſoup for one perſon only. By this diſpoſition, the ſoup, in an extraordinary roll, would not be thrown out of the plate, and would not fall into the breads of thoſe who are at table, and ſcald them.—Having entertained you with theſe things of little importance, permit me now to conclude with ſome general reflections upon navigation.
When navigation is employed only for tranſporting neceſſary proviſions from one country, where they abound, to another where they are wanting; when by this it prevents famines which were ſo frequent and ſo fatal before it was invented and became ſo common; we cannot help conſidering it as one of thoſe arts which contribute moſt to the happineſs of mankind.—But when it is employed to tranſport things of no utility, or articles merely of luxury, it is uncertain whether the advantages reſulting from it are ſufficient to counterbalance the misfortunes it occaſions, by expoſing the lives of ſo many individuals upon the vaſt ocean. And when it is uſed to plunder veſſels and tranſport ſlaves, it is evidently only the dreadful means of increaſing thoſe calamities which afflict human nature.
One is aſtoniſhed to think on the number of veſſels and men who are daily expoſed in going to bring tea from China, coffee from Arabia, and ſugar and tobacco from America; all commodities which our anceſtors lived very well without. The ſugar trade employs nearly a thouſand veſſels; and that of tobacco almoſt the ſame number. With regard to the utility of tobacco, little can be ſaid; and, with regard to ſugar, how much more meritorious would it be to ſacrifice the momentary pleaſure which we receive from drinking it once or twice a-day in our tea, than to encourage the numberleſs cruelties that are continually exerciſed in order to procure it us?
A celebrated French moraliſt ſaid, that, when he conſidered the wars which we foment in Africa to get negroes, the great number who of courſe periſh in theſe wars, the multitude of thoſe wretches who die in their paſſage, by diſeaſe, bad air, and bad proviſions; and laſtly, how many periſh by the cruel treatment they meet with in a ſtate of ſlavery; when he ſaw a bit of ſugar, he could not help imagining it to be covered with, ſpots of human blood. But, had he added to theſe conſiderations the wars which we carry on againſt one another, to take and retake the iſlands that produce this commodity, he would not have ſeen the ſugar ſimply ſpotted with blood, he would have beheld it entirely tinged with it.
Theſe wars make the maritime powers of Europe, and the inhabitants of Paris and London, pay much dearer for their ſugar than thoſe of Vienna, though they are almoſt three hundred leagues diſtant from the ſea. A pound of ſugar, indeed, coſts the former not only the price which they give for it, but alſo what they pay in taxes, neceſſary to ſupport thoſe fleets and armies which ſerve to defend and protect the countries that produce it.
- ↑ It is derived from bis again, and cuit baked.