You're the captain of your ship
December 21, 2015 3:28 PM Subscribe
You're the captain of a sailing ship (details inside) that will carry 121 passengers (117 of them in steerage) from Liverpool to New York. What size crew will you hire?
Your ship is a three-masted bark (actually, two masts and a tri-sail mast). She's 85 feet long and 25 feet, 6 inches at the widest point. For what it's worth, you will be sailing in late April and early May. You will face westerly winds. Total sailing time is about 4 weeks.
What is the minimum crew you need? How many would you hire if the budget allowed?
Your ship is a three-masted bark (actually, two masts and a tri-sail mast). She's 85 feet long and 25 feet, 6 inches at the widest point. For what it's worth, you will be sailing in late April and early May. You will face westerly winds. Total sailing time is about 4 weeks.
What is the minimum crew you need? How many would you hire if the budget allowed?
That sounds small for a bark, a craft that size would more likely be rigged as a 2 masted schooner, which would minimize the crew required for handling her. Maybe 10 or 15?
The barque Jeanie Johnston, which carried Irish famine refugees from Ireland to the US in the 1850s, seems close to what you're talking about, but she was 154' long (123' above deck) and carried around 200 passengers in what I'd imagine were "steerage" conditions. A replica, built in the last few years, is licensed to carry only 40, including crew, which puts an upper bound on crew size. Triangulating between this and a schooner, I'd guess a crew of 25.
posted by mr vino at 7:18 PM on December 21, 2015
The barque Jeanie Johnston, which carried Irish famine refugees from Ireland to the US in the 1850s, seems close to what you're talking about, but she was 154' long (123' above deck) and carried around 200 passengers in what I'd imagine were "steerage" conditions. A replica, built in the last few years, is licensed to carry only 40, including crew, which puts an upper bound on crew size. Triangulating between this and a schooner, I'd guess a crew of 25.
posted by mr vino at 7:18 PM on December 21, 2015
Here's another coffin ship, the brig Hannah, wrecked in 1849, carried a crew of 12 and around 180 passengers.
posted by mr vino at 7:28 PM on December 21, 2015
posted by mr vino at 7:28 PM on December 21, 2015
1. is this now or in the past?
2. When you say "crew," are you asking about just the sailors and deckhands needed to handle the ship, or also stewards and others whose work will be to feed, clean up after, and take care of the passengers?
If we're talking about the 1800s, you can sail a bark like that with only 10 or 12 able seamen. But you'd have a few additional people - cooks, stewards, bursars. Today, though, you'd take on a crew of 18-24 for the same work, because they'd work fewer hours all told and do less per person.
How many would you hire if the budget allowed?
You hire the absolute minimum number possible to complete the trip and earn your profit without going down and without anyone eating too much. You don't overman, you work the crew to their limit.
That sounds small for a bark, a craft that size would more likely be rigged as a 2 masted schooner
No no no. It's not about length overall, it's about traveling transatlantic (requiring square rig) as opposed to coastal (requiring fore-and-aft rig). A schooner that size can actually be sailed with, like, 5 people. But this would never be a schooner because schooners are absolutely not equipped for this transit. A vessel like the one in the question would definitely be square rigged.
posted by Miko at 8:39 PM on December 21, 2015 [3 favorites]
2. When you say "crew," are you asking about just the sailors and deckhands needed to handle the ship, or also stewards and others whose work will be to feed, clean up after, and take care of the passengers?
If we're talking about the 1800s, you can sail a bark like that with only 10 or 12 able seamen. But you'd have a few additional people - cooks, stewards, bursars. Today, though, you'd take on a crew of 18-24 for the same work, because they'd work fewer hours all told and do less per person.
How many would you hire if the budget allowed?
You hire the absolute minimum number possible to complete the trip and earn your profit without going down and without anyone eating too much. You don't overman, you work the crew to their limit.
That sounds small for a bark, a craft that size would more likely be rigged as a 2 masted schooner
No no no. It's not about length overall, it's about traveling transatlantic (requiring square rig) as opposed to coastal (requiring fore-and-aft rig). A schooner that size can actually be sailed with, like, 5 people. But this would never be a schooner because schooners are absolutely not equipped for this transit. A vessel like the one in the question would definitely be square rigged.
posted by Miko at 8:39 PM on December 21, 2015 [3 favorites]
The Irish Barque Dunbrody was built in 1845, and a modern reproduction has been built. My source (Sailing Ships by the designer Colin Mudie) says 176 passengers and 18 crew. I suspect that applies to the new boat, but that the original was similsr.
The ship is 120 feet on deck, and 176 feet overall including bowsprits, etc.
The chapter in the book has a great deal of information about the interior layout, etc which might be interesting if you are writing a story.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:59 AM on December 22, 2015
The ship is 120 feet on deck, and 176 feet overall including bowsprits, etc.
The chapter in the book has a great deal of information about the interior layout, etc which might be interesting if you are writing a story.
posted by SemiSalt at 5:59 AM on December 22, 2015
Also considering the then-vs-now angle: the crew 'then', say during something like the Irish Potato Famine, would have had a different ratio of ship-handling crew to people-handlers: there'd be a much higher percentage of stewards, cooks, cleaners etc. now than there would have been 150 years ago.
Most steerage passengers back then were required to clean up after themselves and sometimes also cook, unlike passengers nowadays. There was not much in the way of 'amenities' for folks in steerage --- they got minimal food, almost no medical care, and minimal space per person; there was no shipboard entertainment other than what they themselves produced. Basically they were shoved belowdecks and hopefully not seen until docking.
posted by easily confused at 7:24 AM on December 22, 2015
Most steerage passengers back then were required to clean up after themselves and sometimes also cook, unlike passengers nowadays. There was not much in the way of 'amenities' for folks in steerage --- they got minimal food, almost no medical care, and minimal space per person; there was no shipboard entertainment other than what they themselves produced. Basically they were shoved belowdecks and hopefully not seen until docking.
posted by easily confused at 7:24 AM on December 22, 2015
there'd be a much higher percentage of stewards, cooks, cleaners etc. now than there would have been 150 years ago.
While that is true, I'm not sure that'd have changed the overall ratio, because we employ many more sailors and deckhands aboard these ships now than they did 150 years ago. Also, on most contemporary sailing vessels, deckhands double as cleaners and assistant cooks.
posted by Miko at 7:28 AM on December 22, 2015
While that is true, I'm not sure that'd have changed the overall ratio, because we employ many more sailors and deckhands aboard these ships now than they did 150 years ago. Also, on most contemporary sailing vessels, deckhands double as cleaners and assistant cooks.
posted by Miko at 7:28 AM on December 22, 2015
Response by poster: Thank you all. The time was 1838. There were four passengers in cabins and 117 in steerage. Guessing that cabin passengers may have been fed. Steerage passengers probably had to fend for themselves when it came to mealtime.
posted by John Borrowman at 2:51 PM on December 22, 2015
posted by John Borrowman at 2:51 PM on December 22, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by suedehead at 3:39 PM on December 21, 2015 [1 favorite]