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Booze, Sailors, Pirates and Health In the Golden Age of Piracy, Page 16

Preventing Hangovers and Curing Drunkenness

Photo: Wiki User MPF - Colewort or Wild Cabbage (Brassica oleracea)
Nostrums for preventing hangovers and curing drunkenness existed long before the golden age of piracy, so it should come as no surprise that there were period and near-period suggestions for making the day after more bearable to the intoxicated. In a book on health, William Vaughan advised, "To drinke great store of wine, and not to be drunke, you must eate of the rosted lungs of a Goat: or otherwise, eate sixe or seaven bitter Almonds fasting: or otherwise, eate raw Coleworts [a type of wild cabbage] before you drinke, and you shall not become drunk."¹ As shocking as is may be, Vaughan had no medical training, being a Doctor of Civil Law. He also suggested that if someone failed to take his advice and actually got drunk, he could be sobered up by making "them eate Coleworts, and some manner of confections made of brine; or else drink great draughts of vinegar."²

Closer to the period of interest, Richard Younge advised in a 1664 tract "that common drunkards... can disgorge themselves at pleasure, by only putting their finger to
Artist: Adriaen van de Venne (1650s) their throat; and they will vomit, as if they were so many live Whales spuing up the Ocean: which done, they can drink a fresh."³ Younge was a writer who railed against drunkards and other perceived sinners, again having no medical training. However, as anyone who has reached the involuntary stage of drunken spewing can attest, his method would at least help sober a drunkard a bit.

Whether any of the sailors availed themselves of such remedies is unknown because the sea literature doesn't mention either of these things as specific remedies. However, a suggestion given by privateer Woodes Rogers in his journal of the voyage around the world. Citing the work of Chilean Spanish Jesuit priest Alonso de Ovalle, Rogers noted that certain fish ('sea stars [starfish], suns [probably tropical Ocean Sunfish] and moons [possibly Opah fish]') when "reduc'd into Powder, and drank in Wine, are an infallible Remedy against Drunkenness, and frequently us'd for that end, because it creates an Abhorrence of Wine in those who drink it "⁴.

Starfish (Oreaster reticulatus)

Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola)

Moonfish (Opah or Lampris guttatus)

¹ William Vaughan, Approved directions for health, 1612, p. 22-3; ² Vaughan, p. 23; ³ Richard Younge, A sovereign antidote, 1664, p. 8; ⁴ Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World, 1712, p. 351

Drunkenness

Artist: Claude-Joseph Vernet - Rowing Men Towards Shore (1771)
“You might have seen oft-times our men,
Go into Boom-boats, Eight, Nine, Ten,
All on a row, with Coats on back,
When they came out, some they did lack.
Not only Coats, but also Wits,
It brought some of them to strange Fits,
Of Drunkenness, for you might see,
In some Boats Drunk, above thrice three:
That lost both Money had and wits,
In these outragious Drunken fits.”
(John Baltharpe, The straights voyage, or, St. Davids poem, 1671, p. 35-6)

Since drinking was the great sport that it was among sailors, there were many episodes of drunkenness. This naturally led to epic tales of what sailors did when they were drunk. (It also led to a certain song about drunken sailors that cannot be used here because it wasn't sung until at least a century after the golden age of piracy.) Sometimes the tales of intoxication were amusing, sometimes they were unfortunate and other times they were tragic.

Merchant sailor Edward Coxere told stories of the drunken captain of the Diligence of London (which he boarded in 1655) who indulged in "some kind of antic tricks, as if his brain had been cracked... when he had got drink in his head."¹ Coxere explains that at one point, the captain

caused the boat to be manned and caused the men to row him two or three miles, and landed him where he tucked down his breeches and eased himself, and so returned back again two or three miles, and then landed and we went all to drinking, captain and men together. All this was done without hardly speaking a word till we got to drinking; all was done by signs with his hand. I, steering the boat, observed the motion of his hand where to steer her.²

On a voyage aboard another merchant ship taken in late 1658 from Faro, Portugal, Coxere said
Artist: Willem van de Velde II
A Ship in Need in a Raging Storm (c. 1680)
that the vessel "was a very sorry thing, about forty-six tons, and the master as bad, and the mate. They would drink themselves drunk at sea."³ He noted that they forced him to drink with them as well, "but I saw the danger and their sottishness, which made me concern myself the more."⁴ Their vessel nearly sank during a storm, although, through liberal use of the water pump, Coxere was able to help get the ship to Falmouth. (Coxere often commented negatively on the effect of drink on merchant sailors in his journal, notably becoming a Quaker later in life.)

Another merchant sailor, Francis Rogers, reported that in 1703 that "Some of our sailors got drunk with small beer."⁵ Given that small beer was probably 1/2 - 2% alcohol, this seems like quite a feat. Since proofing of beverages was very much an inexact art at this time, the batch he is referring to may have been a bit stronger. Either that or the merchant sailors in question must have drank quite a lot of it.

Pirates had an intimate relationship with drunkenness. In the section Alcohol and Sailors: Pirates Charles Johnson suggests that some pirates were drunk a lot of the time. For example, when discussing a complaint by Edward Low about a post-battle operation his surgeon performed, Johnson notes that the doctor was "tollerably drunk, as it was customary for every Body to be".⁶

The frequency of drunkenness among the pirates is almost a dominant theme in Johnson's book. When talking about Francis Spriggs' crew, he explains, "They were now most of ’em
Artist: William Hogarth - From The Invasion, Plate 2 (1757)
drunk, as is usual at this Time of Night"⁷. Of George Lowther's crew, Johnson reports that after capturing a sloop, they took it to an island where they committed "unheard of Debaucheries, with drinking, swearing, and rioting, in which there seemed to be a kind of Emulation among them, resembling rather Devils than Men, striving who should outdo one another in new invented Oaths and Execrations."⁸ In a very similar passage in his chapter on Bartholomew Roberts, Johnson says

after they had got their Vessel ready, in their usual Debaucheries; they had taken a considerable Quantity of Rum and Sugar, so that Liquor [almost certainly punch in this example] was as plenty as Water, and few there were, who denied themselves the immoderate Use of it; nay, Sobriety brought a Man under a Suspicion of being in a Plot against the Commonwealth, and in their Sense, he was looked upon to be a Villain that would not be drunk."⁹

Johnson is by no means alone in pointing out that drinking was common sport among pirates. In the trial of Samuel Bellamy's men a witness testified that when the pirates took a pink (a small sailing vessel with a flat bottom and narrow stern), crew member Simon Van Vorst told Alexander Mackconachy of the pink, "That if he would not find Liquor, he would break His Neck."¹⁰ The account further states that "The Prisoners at the Bar [referring to the courtroom] Drank plentifully of the Wine on board the Pink
Artist: Amedee Forester
From The world went very well
then, By Walter Besant (1888) that day they took her"¹¹. In bemoaning his capture by Edward Low, pirate prisoner Philip Ashton said "that any Death was preferable to being link'd with such a vile Crew of Miscreants, to whom it was a sport to do Mischief; where prodigious Drinking, monstrous Cursing and Swearing, hideous Blasphemies, and open defiance of Heaven, and contempt of Hell it self, was the constant Employment"¹².

It is several times noted in the testimonies given at the trial of Bartholomew Roberts' men that drinking was common on their ships. Harry Glasby testified that the pirates "were very careless in that point [keeping a lookout], often being all hands drunk, and no body fit for Duty."¹³ James Munjoy testified that when the merchant ship Elizabeth was robbed by Roberts' pirates, several of them went into the ship's cabin where they "fell to drinking and swearing, the Vices he saw they were all enamour'd of."¹⁴

Sailors were particularly concerned about letting any alcohol go to waste. When pirate John Smith's forced men abandoned his ship and he had been captured by citizens of northern Scotland, the rest of his crew figured they had no chance to get away, "but as there was a good Quantity of Wine and Brandy aboard, they resolved not to leave the Liquor behind them, rememb’ring the Proverb, so sat to it Night and Day, emptied the Casks, and then came away in as drunken a Pickle as can be imagined."¹⁵

Merchant captain Nathaniel Uring's ship the Bangor galley foundered on the rocks in the Bay of Honduras in 1719, his crew "soon broke open the Casks of Liquor in the Hold, and many of them got drunk; which they were very fond of, that I had much ado to persuade them to get some Bread out of the Hold before it was destroyed by the Salt Water, in order to keep us from starving if we escaped drowning"¹⁶. He did manage to get them to help retrieve some of it, but they left more than they took, because "they would not give themselves the Trouble to preserve it; such unthinking, ungovernable Monsters are Sailors, when once from under Command."¹⁷ Most of them wouldn't help him retrieve the ship's merchant cargo, because they "were often drunk, and then refractory [unmanageable], which there was no Possibility of preventing" with the exception of "two or three more sober Fellows who were ready to obey my Commands"¹⁸.

Men Drinking and Getting Intoxicated, From The Wine
Cooper's Delight Broadsheet, By John Dean (1681)
Not surprisingly, the pirate leaders were sometimes saddled with men who were too drunk, too often. At the trial of pirate William Fly's crew, several men testified "that [George] Condick was commonly the worse for Drink, and not able to bear Arms when several of the Vessels were taken; and for the most part was serviceable to the Pirates as their Cook."¹⁹

The testimonies given at the trials of Bartholomew Roberts men reveal a variety of incidents of this nature. Pirate Peter Lashley overstepped his command when boarded the captured merchant ship Onslow in an intoxicated state, abusing the men aboard by "driving them imperiously to work; and saucily commanding them to throw the Company’s Goods in that Ship over-board, insomuch that the [pirate's] Quarter-master reprimanded him, and ask’d him how he dare do it, since they were under his Protection?"²⁰ Pirate William Taylor got out of line while intoxicated by firing "a Gun against the Man of War, no body but himself being at it"²¹.

An intoxicated man generally made for a poor sailor or pirate. "Stephen Thomas swears [under oath that] he never saw him [Robert Bevins] sober scarce, or fit for any Duty, while he was on board the Pyrates."²² New pirate recruit Robert Johnson "got so drunk with the Pyrates, he was forced to be hoisted out with a Tackle, and into the Fortune [one of Robert's ships] again the same way"²³.

¹ Edward Coxere, Adventures by Sea of Edward Coxere, 1946, p. 51; ² Coxere, p. 51-2; ^3,4 Coxere, p. 118; ⁵ Francis Rogers. from Bruce S. Ingram's book Three Sea Journals of Stuart Times, 1936, p. 197; ⁶ Daniel Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), A General History of the Pyrates, Manuel Schonhorn, ed., 1999, p. 324; ⁷ Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 354; ⁸ Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 312; ⁹ Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 245; ^{10, 11} The Trial of Eight Persons Indited for Piracy &c, 1718, p. 10; ¹² Philip Ashton, Ashton's Memorial, 1726, p. 21; ¹³ Pyrates Lately taken by Captain OGLE, 1723, p. 39; ²¹ Pyrates Lately taken... p. 41; ¹⁵ Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 368; ^16,17 Nathaniel Uring, A history of the voyages and travels of Capt. Nathaniel Uring, 1928, p. 234; ¹⁸ Uring, p. 235; ¹⁹ The Tryals of Sixteen Persons for Piracy &c., 1726, p. 18-9; ^20,21 Pyrates Lately taken... p. 61; ²² Pyrates Lately taken..., p. 19; ²³ Pyrates Lately taken..., p. 50

Attempts to Prevent Drunkenness

While intoxication seems to have been a part of the sailor's life, particularly for the pirates, it was not always desirable.
Fort James at the Mouth of the Gambia River, 1732, From Travels Into the Inland Parts of Africa, Francis Moore (1738) It was hard enough to sail a ship when sober. Sometimes the pirates had to be made to stay sober just so they could achieve their short term goal of taking other ships and places. When Howell Davis was preparing the assault on the trading fort,located near the mouth of the Gambia River - Fort James - by pretending to be a legitimate trader, "he assured his Men of Success, desiring them not to get drunk, and that as soon as they saw the Flag upon the Castle struck, they might conclude he was Master, and send twenty Hands immediately ashore"¹. (Emphasis mine.)

Although everyone in the crew may not have agreed with him, Roberts seemed to appreciate the need for at least some degree of sobriety, possibly in order for them to be able to achieve their goal of obtaining their professed goal of each pirate sharing a thousand pounds.² The crew did not make it easy for him to keep them sober. Johnson explains that

Bartholomew Roberts Unruly Future Crew, From The Pirates Own Book
by Charles Ellms (1837)

it was with great Difficulty they could be kept together, under any kind of Regulation; for being almost always mad or drunk, their Behaviour produced infinite Disorders... When Roberts saw there was no managing of such a Company of wild ungovernable Brutes, by gentle Means, nor to keep them from drinking to Excess, the Cause of all their Disturbances, he put on a rougher Deportment, and a more magisterial Carriage towards them, correcting whom he thought fit³.

Roberts was not alone among his crew in recognizing the problems with over-indulgence in alcohol. Being sober when making important decisions by the crew was highlighted before Roberts was even elected captain while Howell Davis' former crew were chosing a new captain. One of the self-described pirate 'lords' declared

it is my Advice, that, while we are sober, we pitch upon a Man of Courage, and skill’d in Navigation, one, who by his Counsel and Bravery seems best able to defend this Commonwealth, and ward us from the Dangers and Tempests of an instable Element, and the fatal Consequences of Anarchy; and such a one I take Roberts to be.⁴

Roberts' crew even punished those who were drunk when it suited them. Crewmember Benjamin Jeffreys provides an example. He, "having been abusive in his Drink, saying to the Pyrates,
Bartholomew Roberts, From The
General History of the Pyrates 1724 there was not a Man amongst them, he received for a Welcome, six Lashes from every Person in the Ship, which disordered him for some Weeks"⁵.

They even included rules about drinking in the articles which all pirates had to sign when they agreed to join the crew. On the one hand, Roberts' first article declared that "Every Man ...has equal Title to the fresh Provisions or strong Liquors, at any Time seized, and use them at pleasure, unless a Scarcity"⁶, which seems to give the crew members a free hand in drinking when they liked, provided there was booze to be drank. On the other hand the fourth article stated that if the crew members wished to continue drinking after eight p.m., "they were to do it on the open Deck, which Roberts believed would give a Check to their Debauches, for he was a sober Man himself, but found at length, that all his Endeavours to put an End to this Debauch, proved ineffectual."⁷

That quote says that Roberts 'was a sober Man'. Author Charles Johnson elsewhere states that Roberts drank tea 'constantly'⁸, which, in combination with some of Roberts comments about drunkenness, has led some observers to suggest that he didn't drink. However, Johnson also mentions that when Roberts was breakfasting with a captured Neptune merchant ship captain, they dined "on a savory Dish of Solomongundy [Salmagundi - a rather complex salad], and some of his own Beer."⁹ This indicates that he not only drank, he may have preferred his own, likely better beverages, such as naval officers drank.

It is possible that Johnson was pointing out that Roberts was less of a sot that the rest of his crew. Sobriety in our culture today often refers to a strict swearing off of alcohol. However, John Kersey's 1708 dictionary simply defines 'sober' as "temperate, moderate, grave, modest"¹⁰. Words tended to have more fluid meanings at this time. Combined with Johnson's other references to Roberts being of 'a more magisterial Carriage' towards the crew and able to keep the crew 'from the Dangers and Tempests of an instable Element, and the fatal Consequences of Anarchy', a less strict definition of sobriety seems appropriate here.

Roberts' views on alcohol were nearly his undoing at the hands of his men. Johnson notes that late in his career, he was thought to be a problem "because he grew reserved, and would not drink and roar at their Rate, a Cabal was formed to take away his Captainship, which Death did
Artist: Abraham Storck
The Frigate Peter and Paul (1698) more effectually."¹¹ Ironically, the intoxication of his men was at the root of his undoing, if Johnson is correct. As Chaloner Ogle in the warship HMS Swallow was preparing to attack Roberts' ship the Royal Fortune, Roberts "saw that the greatest Part of his Men were drunk, passively couragious, unfit for Service."¹² Due at least in part to their inability to put up a good fight and/or run, Roberts was killed in the subsequent battle.

Roberts was not alone in attempting to restrict sailors from over-indulging in booze. Rules with such overtones predate his articles by more than five hundred years. The 12th Century Laws of Oleron, originally established to govern shipping by merchant ships calling at the French Île d'Oléron, went on to form the basis of Admiralty Law governing merchant and naval vessels in the majority of Europe. These were still technically in force during the golden age of piracy. Article VI of these rules basically absolves a captain of all responsibility for well-being of sailors who get themselves drunk:

If any of the mariners hired by the master of any vessel, go out of the ship without his leave, and get themselves drunk, and thereby there happens contempt to their master, debates, or fighting and quarreling among themselves, whereby some happen to be wounded: in this case the master shall not be obliged to get them cured, or in any thing to provide for them, but may turn them and their accomplices out of the ship¹³

Two Injured Sailors Sitting in the Garden of a Tavern
From the Wellcome Collection (1791) The first complete set of naval regulations which were put into print in 1731 contain a description of the punishment meted out for drunkenness. His Majesty's 'Rules of Discipline' state, "He who is guilty of Drunkenness, if a Seaman, shall be put in Irons until he is sober, but if an Officer, he Shall forfeit Two Days Pay."¹⁴ (This is actually quite a tame punishment, perhaps suggesting the difficulty of having to punish too many men at once. Either that or it indicates how common and irrelevant the navy found intoxication at this time.)

Navy sailors who were sick or wounded and wound up in hospital under the Navy's or Army's care at St. Bartholomew's Hospital were governed by somewhat stricter rules. Those housed there during the first Dutch War were warned by the Board of Commissioners for Sick and Wounded that they must stay sober or be turned out of the facility. John Keevil notes, "Only two seamen failed to heed the warning, being ‘commonly drunke and distempered," quarrelling in the King’s Ward and fighting leading ‘disorderly lives’ and hindering the cure of other patients, they were discharged five days later."¹⁵ The Savoy Hospital was not as strict, however, only punishing sailors for alcoholism which was 'certified' by a hospital surgeon or overseer. Punishment was meted out if such certification was made, however. Keevil explains, "For the first offence he was ‘sett in the Stockes,’ for the second he forfeited a week’s pay, and for the third he was expelled."¹⁶

¹ Daniel Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), A General History of the Pyrates, Manuel Schonhorn, ed., 1999, p. 172; ² Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 213; ³ Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 224; ⁴ Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 195; ⁵ Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 278; ⁶ Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 230; ⁷ Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 230; ⁸ Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 213; ⁹ Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 242; ¹⁰ John Kersey, "sober", Dictionarium Anglo-Britannicum, 1708, not paginated; ¹¹ Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 234; ¹² Defoe  (Captain Charles Johnson), p. 243; ¹³ Rules of Olereon, 1266, admiraltylawguide.com, gathered 2/1/16;  ¹⁴ Great Britain Privy Council, Regulations and Instructions Relating to His Majesty's Service at Sea, 1731, p. 45; ¹⁵ John J. Keevil, Medicine and the Navy 1200-1900: Volume II – 1640-1714, 1958, p. 24; ¹⁶ Keevil, p. 25

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