Freshwater on Cutty Sark
This is Cutty Sark’s only freshwater pump.
On a long voyage drinking water was a scarce commodity, strictly rationed and kept locked.
Every morning, the Mate would remove the padlock from the freshwater pump by the foot of the mainmast and issue one bucket of drinking water for every three men. Not enough for any frivolous nonsense like washing themselves or their clothes – that would have to wait until it rained!
Yes, under the Articles of Agreement that they signed when they joined the ship, each man was legally entitled to receive 3 quarts (3.4 litres) daily. Each watch would nominate one man as ‘Peggy’ whose job was to collect the water ration for the watch.
Carrying a few buckets of water the few yards forward to their deckhouse fo’c’sle should be simple enough – on a good day – but what was it like when the weather was bad?
This account by Billy Jones, an apprentice on British Isles, a 3-masted full-rigged ship in 1898 gives us an idea of the challenge they faced:
“Fresh water for drinking and cooking is a necessity that cannot be avoided. The practical problem of getting buckets of fresh water became a worry of the first magnitude when the gale continued.
The difficulty arose from the position of the ship’s fresh-water pump which was fitted to the after side of the mizzen brace fife rail, forward of the apprentices’ half-deck. The pump was kept padlocked and by strict rule to be used only in the presence of an officer.
Under normal sailing conditions, this is a handy place for the pump, as the normal daily ration – one bucket of fresh water for every three men for all purposes, could be conveniently drawn there and carried in the buckets forward or aft to the respective quarters.
But in a Cape Horn Snorter, the position of the pump was the most exposed to seas breaking on board and gave no shelter whatever from the deluges that continuously swept the decks as sea after sea pounded the weather side.
To draw a few buckets of water from that pump once a day required the strenuous efforts of all available hands on the watch, perhaps eight men and an officer – exposing them all to extreme danger.
Ten buckets of water per day constituted the full ration for everyone on board, but in the circumstances, we were lucky if we could draw five or six buckets without mishap.
The procedure was acrobatic. Lifelines were rigged tight along the deck on both sides. By these, the men hauled themselves along to the pump holding an empty bucket above their heads to keep them free of salt water and spray. As the seas broke over the rail at irregular intervals each man had to keep one hand free to clutch at the lifeline or anything else that might be to hand, to prevent himself from being knocked down by the rush of water and swept into the scuppers, with risk of serious injury, or even being swept overboard.
Arrived at the pump, two men or boys stood balanced on the fife rail about three feet above the deck and two more about three feet above them on a platform of planks lashed to the tackles of the topsail and topgallant halyards.
The men on the upper platform had charge of the empty buckets with two or three men ready to lend a hand passing filled buckets forward to the focs’l or aft to the poop.
On deck the officer of the watch and two men stood by the pump, up to their waists in water and lashed to the fife rail. As the opportunity occurred between seas, when the pump was temporarily free of the flood, a bucket was passed down and with frantic pumping was partly filled before the next sea broke over the deck. It was then snatched by the top men and passed in relays to its destination, being held as high as possible to avoid flying salt-spray.
This routine, which may seem simple when described in words, was one that required great agility in a howling gale or blizzard with the ship rolling and lurching in mountainous seas. It often required an hour or more of concentrated effort by eight men to obtain six or seven buckets of water from the pump before further effort would have to be abandoned through sheer exhaustion.
Even then, perhaps only one bucket in three would reach its destination tasting like fresh water, as it was practically impossible to keep it free from salt splash and spray.”
So when you take a swig of clean, cool water, spare a thought for what that involved for the crews of Cutty Sark and be glad your drinking water doesn’t taste of salt !
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