Welcome aboard! Did you ever wonder what it would be like to go to sea on a sailing ship for months at a time? Well, if you lived 200 years ago, you could find out for yourself. Indentured servants often had to work onboard the ship that would take them to the Virginia Colony. As teenagers, they were the youngest members of the crew, and held the lowliest position onboard-that of Ship's Boy.
Ship's boys were taken on board not only to work, but to learn the skills needed to become a mariner, boatswain (pronounced bo-sun), pilot or other crewmember. As a ship's boy, you might work for one of these men to learn their jobs, much like an apprentice would learn a trade or craft on land. Your duties on board the ship were important to help you learn these jobs, and the boatswain made sure you learned your duties well.
One of your duties might be to keep track of time aboard ship. This sounds simple, but can be difficult. The ship's crew was divided into two groups called "watches": the starboard watch and the larboard watch. The men on one watch would run the ship while the men on the other watch rested. Every four hours the two watches changed, and the men who had been working had a chance to rest.
The ship's boys had to ensure that time was kept correctly, and the watches only worked for four hours at a time. This was done by using a thirty-minute sandglass. Ship's boys turned the sandglass every half hour, and then rang the ship's bell one time for every thirty minutes of the watch, to let the sailors know the correct time. For example, if your watch started at twelve noon, you would ring the bell five times at 2:30, seven times at 3:30, and so on. Every watch ended with eight bells, hence the expression "eight bells." So you can see that keeping track of time was a big responsibility, and you wouldn't want to make a mistake, or the boatswain might punish you!
The ship's pilot was responsible for making sure the ship was steered in the right direction to get to the right place at the end of the voyage. Pilots needed to know how to use a compass in order to tell which direction the ship was headed and learning to use the compass was another of the ship's boys' duties! We all know that there are four main directions on the compass: North, East, South and West. Did you know that the sailor's compass rose had thirty-two directions or points? For example, in between North and East is North by East, North Northeast, Northeast by North, and so on. Ships' boys had to learn to "say" all thirty-two points of the compass so that they could learn to steer the ship.
Are you ready to become a ship's boy? Good! The short introduction above covers just a few of your responsibilities. Now, lets go back in time to see primary source documents that describe life aboard an 18th century sailing vessel. The first link tells you about one indentured servant's horrific experiences about a ship bound for the New World; The second link shows you the job responsibilities of each sailor; the third link charts out the food allotted to each person on board ship; the fourth link is a first-hand account of scurvy and it's deleterious effects.
After you examine these documents to get a feel for real shipboard living, go to the last link and become familiar with the navigational tools and practices that were mentioned at the beginning of this page. Complete the following sections:
- The Compass
- The Astrolabe
- The Quadrant
- Identify Navigational Instruments
- Identify Parts of a Ship
- Latitude and Longitude
- Starving Sailors (Sea Biscuit recipe)
- Sores, Scabies and Scurvy
When you complete the above, print out your results and compile them in your journal.
You've done good work, Ship's Boy!
Now, visit the Caribbean Pirates section.
Arghhhh...!
