Life at sea in age of Sail could be very hard. Tough work, no women, brutal discipline, poor food and nothing to look at but the sea for month son end was hardly conducive to a fun time. At night you slept in hammock with all the other sea lags, unless you were the Captain or an officer and there wasn’t even a porthole to look out off. You’d have needed a nice bit of glass for that and a good Double Glazing Company Evesham way know a thing about that they’re at https://www.firmfix.co.uk/doors/ if you’re looking for that. The worst situation though was if you found that the wind stopped, and the tide fell away to turn the sea to glass. You were, horror of horrors, becalmed.
When a ship is powered only by sail you can imagine the problems that come about when there is no wind. Ships in the 1700’s was used to this predicament and it was seen as one of the many occupational hazards that you had to endure. You could argue that it won’t happen to a Greek Trireme or a Viking Longboat as they had a hundred slaves, or themselves, on board to row them out of trouble. That galley slave space had long been abandoned so that more cargo could be fitted inside (sometimes for slaves, disgustingly). When the wind stopped then you were motionless.
Whilst it may seem like a nice idea to spend your days lazily drifting at a very low pace with no breath of wind and just endless sun you may think that the only thing you need worry about is the sunblock. There are a few more concerns for the sailors and mariners at the time. First of all, their water supplies ran out. You can then imagine the fun of the situation. You are surrounded by water, but you can’t drink it. If you do succumb and drink it, you’re only going to make it worse because the salt content in the seawater will dehydrate you even more than you already are. You’re better off drinking your own wee, but you can only do that 3 times before the same thing applies. You could desalinate the water which means taking the salt out. To do that though you’d need a fire to heat the seawater and collect the steam. Fine if you’re on a desert island, the only problem with that is that you’re proposing to light a major fire on a bone dry wooden ship. So, if you don’t drink, your organs start to fail and your Brain shrinks causing nausea and delirium.
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge highlighted this problem in its narrative quite convincingly. “Day after day, day after day. We struck on breath or motion. As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean”. And “Water, water everywhere, Nor any drop to drink”. Take my advice make sure you’ve got an outboard motor and plenty of fuel with you.
