[sillyquiet]

Right, I think for the most part the 'harshness' of life in the Royal navy during the age of sail is overblown, as all the things that are brutal or harsh to us (the discipline, the poor food, etc) was not much different than life for that same set of people on land, and as you say, in a lot of ways even better - your food for the most part was at least certain as the clock.

[BoxOfRain]

Yeah the harshness is definitely relative, I'd rather have been an ordinary seaman in the Royal Navy than say a miner of that era for example.