[Sca-cooks] Maize 1565 and food of 16th century sailors

[emilio szabo]

"Near about this place inhabited certain Indians, who the next day after 
we came thither came down to us, presenting mill and cakes of bread,
which they had made of a kind of corn called maize, in bigness of a pease,
the ear whereof is much like to a teasel, but a span in lenght, having thereon
a number of grains". (1565; The Voyage made by Master John Hawkins ... begun in .. 1564)

(Voyages of the Elizabethan Seamen. Select Narratives from the 'Principal Navigations'
of Hakluyt. Edited by Edward John Payne ... Oxford 1907, p. 29)

There are several passages on  the food and the "provision" of the sailors.


What do we know about: "The food of 16th century sailors"?


Any suggestions?

 
E.