Accession Number

1986.008.0678

Creation Date

circa 1620

Description

Surface design, faint blue-grey glaze. Intact. Cross-mended together in several places.

Exhibition Label

Case Caption (2023): 

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.
Object Caption (2023):

Dishes
Tin glazed ceramic (c.1620)
Gift of Jamestown Inc.
1986.008.0678, 1986.008.0846, 1986.008.0882
Previous Exhibit Case Caption: Removed 2022. WHITEWARE Called Loza Blanca (white ceramics) in shipboard inventories, this plain, tin-glazed majolica represents the most common and cheapest form of tableware at the time. It is usually found as plates, drinking vessels and bowls. This traditional style of earthenware pottery was made in the Seville area, and is derived from the styles utilized by Arab occupiers of the region in the previous centuries. The grayish appearance of many of these examples is a reflection of their submersion in the sea.