#roipirate

Pirates, on the other hand, were a little different in this respect.  There were various types of goods  ships would be provisioned with, and that goes for any kind of ship.  Dried meat was a thing that would be super common, and sometimes could be so tough that sailors would literally carve buttons out of it, to replace ones they’d lost.  The joke goes that the cook would soak it in the sea to get some of the salt out.  Hardtack was stored but typically only brought out when shit was starting to look grim and supplies were starting to run low.  Mostly because the way it was made, being twice and thrice baked, allowed it to keep for super long periods of time as long as it stayed dry.  You wouldn’t see a lot of water kept on ships, but what was typically was mixed with rum.  This is because the rum kept the water from going stagnant in the barrels it was kept with, and also kept the barrels from going slimy.  

Things you’d typically find on a ship?  Bacon.  Grits.  Oatmeal.  Eggs (because ships would most certainly at least keep chickens - the guy who looked after the birds on the ship would be called a duck fucker - no I’m not kidding).  Beans.  Rice.  Various grains.  Fresh fruit and vegetables - these would be eaten first so they wouldn’t spoil.  Food preservation methods weren’t the greatest - there were no canned goods at this point - but pickled and dried vegetables and meats would be a thing.  When things really started to look like they were getting low, pirates would fish!  And anything they caught was typically kept in the bilge or lower decks if it wasn’t going to be nommed on right away, like sea turtles (aye, sea turtles).  Trading with local settlements and local tribes was definitely a thing in the Caribbean for them, and their diet would include a lot of the local fruits, vegetables, and game.  They’d eat whale, shark, manatee, pretty much anything that was edible, when it came down to it.  Cooks had to be creative when things started to look a little rough, and you’d have things like a mixed vegetable and meat salad called salmagundi.  If that was getting made, nobody was feeling too particularly great, no matter how good of a cook the ship had, because it’ meant shit was starting to look lean.

An important thing to know about pirates and food:  With pirates, everything was an equal share.  Foodwise, everyone got the same allotment, no matter who they were, from the captain down to the cabin boy, if there was one.  It was a touchy subject for a lot of sailors that turned pirate, because many had been horribly mistreated on various merchant and navy ships.  You were given a full share of rations and rum (or booze in general) as a pirate, and it was yours.  No one could take that from you, the way they could on a merchant or navy ship, as punishment.  And you pretty much had access to it whenever you wanted it.  No one was going to tell you no, because it was yours.  When things started getting really lean, there was usually a re-divvying up things.  

Pirate diets were also full of dense foods and high calorie.  This is because sailing is incredibly demanding physically, and your average pirate (or sailor) would eat between 6 and 8 thousand calories a day.  And despite that, because it all was so physically demanding, sailors in general were easy to spot due to their body types, which were - as many records indicate - almost universally lean, hard-bodied, and compactly muscled.

Pirates typically ate better than other crews of the period, because pirate crews were typically smaller, and the best bits of provisions they took from ships would be kept for their own uses.  Cooks knew to take things there wasn’t much of (different types of alcohol, for example, pilfered from a taken ship’s cabin) and make things like stews and punches, to ensure every man aboard got his fair share.