[Sca-cooks] Spanish seafaring food

[Robin Carroll-Mann]

I was browsing through LIBRO (Library of Iberian Resources Online) at
http://libro.uca.edu and I came across an interesting tidbit.  The following is
from _Consulate of the Sea and Related Documents_, which is a 15th
century compilation of laws, regulations, and customs governing merchant
shipping.
http://libro.uca.edu/consulate/index.htm

The section below deals with food for sailors:

145-Food Which Must Be Provided for the Sailors by the Patron
To continue: Every patron of a vessel or a boat which has a deck must
provide the following food for the whole crew: Meat three times per
week. This means on Sunday, Tuesday, and on Thursday. On the other
days of the week he shall provide soup for them,{HYPERLINK  \l "N_7_"} in addition to the bread
given the crew each evening. Also three times per week, in the morning
and in the evening he shall provide them with wine. To supplement the
bread ration they should be given cheese or onions or sardines or other
kind of fish.
In addition, the master of a vessel is required to issue rations of wine, if it
will not cost him more than three and one-half besants. If he procures
raisins or even figs, he should make wine; if he should not be able to get
either figs or raisins or if they cost more than thirty milliares per thousand
rolls, the master will not be required to issue wine rations.
Furthermore, the patron shall double the rations of the crew on all official
holy days. Finally, he shall employ proper personnel to prepare the food
for the crew.
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Brighid ni Chiarain *** mka Robin Carroll-Mann
Barony of Settmour Swamp, East Kingdom
rcmann4 at earthlink.net