Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-gvh9x Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T20:40:38.409Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A nutritional analysis of the food rations Martin Frobisher's second expedition, 1577

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 October 2009

Conrad E. Heidenreich  and
Nancy L. Heidenreich
Conrad E. Heidenreich
Affiliation:
Department of Geography, York University, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada
Nancy L. Heidenreich
Affiliation:
Food and Nutrition Management Program, Centennial College, Scarborough, Ontario M1K 5E9, Canada
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

A list of the provisions for the second expedition led by Martin Frobisher was produced on 26 March 1577, for 115 men and 18 months. These plans contain an extraordinarily detailed food procurement list: the quantity of each food, the cost of each item, and how the rations were to be allocated. The subject of this paper is a nutritional analysis of the rations on this list. It is assumed that the March list is simply an 18-month version of what was put in place for the eventual seven-month expedition.

The individual foods for the expedition were grouped into four basic meal plans, rotated throughout the journey at four ‘meat days’ and three ‘fast days’ per week. Since the amount of each food allocated per person per day was indicated, the quantities of each were able to be converted into modern measures, based on foods thought to be near equivalents to those in Frobisher's time, and the caloric and nutrient intake calculated. The results show a fairly monotonous diet of about 4000 calories on fast days to 5000 calories on meat days. Except for a virtual absence of vitamin C, the diet seems nutritionally adequate over short runs. Inadequacies could occur quickly if some foodstuffs went bad, or if members of the crew were depleted of crucial nutrients, such as ascorbic acid, before the voyage began. On longer journeys this diet would have been inadequate, as it is doubtful if beer (29% of the calories) or butter and cheese (most of the vitamin A) could have lasted for more than six months. An examination of 18 Arctic voyages between Frobisher's first (1576) and that of James (1631–1632) demonstrates that they had similar foodstuffs on board, and that few suffered appreciable dietary problems unless they were gone for more than six months.

Type
Articles
Information
Polar Record , Volume 38 , Issue 204 , January 2002 , pp. 23 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2002

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andrews, K.R. (editor). 1972. The last voyage of Drake and Hawkins. Cambridge: Hakluyt Society.Google Scholar
Asher, G.M. (editor). 1860. Henry Hudson the navigator. London: Hakluyt Society.Google Scholar
Auger, R., Fitzhugh, W.W., Gullason, L., Henshaw, A., Hogarth, D., and Laeyendecker, D.. 2001. Decentring icons of history: exploring the archaeology of the Frobisher voyages and early European-lnuit contact. In: Warkentin, G., and Podruchy, C. (editors). Decentring the Renaissance: Canada and Europe in multidisciplinary perspective, 1500–1700. Toronto: University of Toronto Press: 262–286.Google Scholar
Cell, G.T. (editor). 1982. Newfoundland discovered: English attempts at colonization, 1610–1630. London: Hakluyt Society.Google Scholar
Collinson, R. (editor). 1867. The three voyages of Martin Frobisher in search of a passage to Cathaia and India the north-west, AD 1576–1578. London: Hakluyt Society.Google Scholar
Fitzhugh, W.W., and Olin, J.S. (editors). 1993. Archaeology of the Frobisher voyages. Washington: Smithsonian Institution.Google Scholar
Foxe, L. 1635. North-west Fox, or, Fox from the North-west Passage. London: B. Alsop and T. Fawcet.Google Scholar
Friel, I. 1999. Frobisher's ships: the ships of the northwestern Atlantic voyages, 1576–1578. In: Symons, T.H.B. (editor). Meta incognita: a discourse of discovery, Martin Frobisher's Arctic expeditions, 1576–1578. 2 vols. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization (Mercury Series, Directorate paper 10): II, 299–352.Google Scholar
Gosh, C.C.A. (editor). 1907. Danish Arctic expeditions, 1605–1620. 2 vols. London: Hakluyt Society.Google Scholar
Canada, Health. 1990. Nutrition recommendations: the report of the Scientific Review Committee. Ottawa: Minister of Supply and ServicesGoogle Scholar
Hogarth, D.D., Boreham, P.W., and Mitchell, J.G., 1994. Mines, minerals and metallurgy. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization (Mercury Series, paper 7).Google Scholar
James, T. 1740. The dangerous voyage of Capt. Thomas James. 2nd edition. London: O'Payne.Google Scholar
Keeler, M.F. (editor). 1981. Sir Francis Drake's West Indian voyage, 1585–1586. London: Hakluyt Society.Google Scholar
Kemp, P. 1970. The British sailor: a social history of the lower deck. London: J.M. Dent and Sons.Google Scholar
Kenyon, W.A. 1980–1981. The Canadian Arctic journal of Capt. Edward Fenton, 1578. Archivaria 11: 171–203.Google Scholar
Kenyon, W.A. 1990. Arctic argonauts. Waterloo, Ontario: Penumbra Press.Google Scholar
Lloyd, C. 1970. The British seaman 1200–1860: a social survey. London: Paladin.Google Scholar
Lloyd, C.C. 1981. Victualling of the fleet in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In: Watt, J., Freeman, E.J., and Bynum, W.F. (editors). Starving sailors: the influence of nutrition upon naval and maritime history. London: National Maritime Museum: 9–15.Google Scholar
Markham, A.H. (editor). 1880. The voyages and works of John Davis the navigator. 2 vols. London: Hakluyt Society.Google Scholar
Markham, A.H. (editor). 1881. The voyages of William Baffin, 1612–1622. London: Hakluyt Society.Google Scholar
ODA/OHA. 1989. Nutritional care manual. Sixth edition. Don Mills: Ontario Dietetic Association and Ontario Hospital Association.Google Scholar
Pennington, J.A.T. (editor). 1994. Bowes and Church's food values of portions commonly used. Sixteenth edition. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott.Google Scholar
Proulx, G. 1984. Between France and New France: life aboard the tall sailing ships. Toronto: Dundurn Press.Google Scholar
Schaefer, O., and Steckle, J., 1980. Dietary habits and nutritional base of native populations of the Northwest Territories. Yellowknife: Department of Information, Government of the Northwest Territories.Google Scholar
Shils, M.E., and Young, V.R.. 1988. Modern nutrition in health and disease. Seventh edition. Philadelphia: Lea and Febiger.Google Scholar
Troup, J.A. 1987. The ice-bound whalers: the story of the Dee and the Grenville Bay, 1836–1837. Stromness Museum: Orkney Press.Google Scholar
Turner, W. 1551. A newherball. 3 vols. London. Reprinted 1989, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
USDA. 1963. Composition of foods. Washington: United States Department of Agriculture (Agriculture Handbook 8, revised).Google Scholar
Wardlaw, G.M., and Insel, P.M.. 1996. Perspectives in nutrition. Third edition. St. Louis: Mosby-Yearbook.Google Scholar
Watt, J. 1999. The medical record of the Frobisher voyages of 1576, 1577 and 1578. In: Symons, T.H.B. (editor). Meta incognita: a discourse of discovery, Martin Frobisher's Arctic expeditions, 1576–1578. 2 vols. Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization (Mercury Series, Directorate paper 10): II, 607–632.Google Scholar