Accession Number

1986.008.0677

Alternate object names

Plato

Creation Date

circa 1620

Description

An earthenware ceramic plate, or plato, comes from one of the galleons of the 1622 Tierra Firme fleet, wrecked near Key West, Florida in 1622. It is just under 20 centimeters in diameter and covered with a light-blue/gray tin-based enamel. This would have been a low-cost, common-grade dish, affordable to just about anyone on the ships.

Exhibition Label

Case Caption:

DINING AT SEA

Aboard Spanish ships, sailors ate with the six or eight men who were their messmates. Instead of having a single cook for the whole ship, as was common aboard other European vessels, one man would cook for each mess.

Common sailors and soldiers could expect six ounces of salt pork on the nineteen “meat days” each month, six ounces of dried cod on the nine “fish days,” and the same amount of cheese on the other days. They also got small measures of rice, chickpeas, and olive oil, as well as two pints of wine a day. If the ship were becalmed, they could sometimes vary their diet by catching fish. Usually, they were too busy, and the ship was moving too quickly. The sturdy, tin-glazed dishes and bowls in this case are the type of inexpensive tableware that they would have used.

Passengers would often supplement the ship’s meager fare with supplies of their own. Animals, ranging from pigs to turtles, were carried on board to provide fresh meat, but any fruit or vegetables would go bad quickly, particularly in tropical waters.