The “mess” was actually the heart of a ship’s crew. While the officers stayed their wardroom or gunroom (depending on the size of the ship) where they ate, lived and socialised, the sailors did so in the mess, between the guns, because there it was actually situated on multi-deck ships, a frigate had the luxury that the men stayed in the lower deck without guns and thus had a little more space.
Messtable on the middle gun deck onboard of HMS Victory, by damian entwistle
If you think that this is how it is in modern times, that there is an extra room, you are wrong. The mess is actually just a table, without legs and tied to the deckhead by ropes. The men sat on their sea chests or an improvised bench that could be quickly stowed away. To eat, the men were divided into messes, hence the name. And each mess could consist of 4-8 people who ate together at one table. Between the meal times, they could also sit down with another person if they wanted to talk or something.
The sailor’s description of a chase & capture, by George Cruikshank (1792-1878)
Sailors and Marines were separate and had their own messes. If someone wanted to change their mess because there was a problem between them, this was possible, it just had to be communicated to the first lieutenant and allowed by him, as he made the plans and sorted the men into their units. Each mess also kept and respected their plates etc. with many keeping their private things in their boxes and the Navy issued crockery being stored elsewhere. If something was lost with the number of the person who had it, he had to pay for it, that means he had go to the purser and buy a new one. Pewter dishes were known, as with the officers, but because they could get dented quite quickly, the Sailors had wooden dishes. And the plates were square, hence the name square meal.
Saturday Night At Sea, by George Cruikshank (1792-1878)
Every day a man was chosen from the mess (in order) to go to the Purser Mates (Jack of the Dust) in the morning to collect the food in a bag with the mess number on it. This was taken to the cook and he threw it all together to make the meal of the day.
As I said before, the place where the food was eaten was also the place where the men passed their freetime. And this created so much heat that these places were not heated. The grog was also consumed in the mess and the men smoked next to the smoking lamp. In this place, stories were exchanged, crafts were made and later also sleeping was done. In short, the mess (the gun or lower deck) was the place where the ordinary sailors lived.
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