Portugal’s early 15th-century expansion along the Atlantic and down the West African coast created sustained, long-distance shipboard provisioning needs, encouraging heavy reliance on durable staples such as ship’s biscuit and salted provisions packed in casks.
By the late 15th and 16th centuries, salt-curing and drying fish (especially cod) supported large-scale Atlantic fisheries and commerce, and also supplied ships with a compact, long-keeping protein that could be rehydrated and cooked aboard.
Contemporary references for the Spanish Armada period describe a theoretical daily allowance including 1 lb of ship’s biscuit; such hard bread was central to long-voyage provisioning because it resisted spoilage when kept dry.
Samuel Pepys’ 1660s reforms helped standardize naval supply and rations, including specifying a daily issue of well-baked wheaten biscuit—strengthening institutional, large-scale production and storage of preserved staples.
In 1683, a state victualling department was re-established, reinforcing centralized procurement, processing, and storage for preserved provisions (e.g., biscuit, salted meat, beer) needed for sustained naval operations.
Victualling Instructions dated 1697 evidence the growing bureaucratic and logistical framework for feeding fleets—an environment in which standardized preserved foods (biscuit, salted and barrelled goods) became routine.
On voyages beginning in 1768, James Cook’s ships carried preserved anti-scorbutic foods (including sauerkraut and other stores), demonstrating how fermentation and other preservation strategies were integrated into long-range maritime provisioning.
Following successful trials in the mid-1790s, the Admiralty adopted daily lemon juice (with sugar) for sailors, reducing scurvy and complementing preserved shipboard diets otherwise dominated by biscuit and salted/barrelled foods.
In 1801, Josiah Bent began producing durable flour-and-water crackers designed to resist deterioration on long voyages—an American commercial refinement of ship’s biscuit traditions.
In 1810, Nicolas Appert published a method of preserving foods by heating and sealing them in containers, marking a major shift beyond drying/salting toward industrial-style preserved foods usable on ships and campaigns.
On 1810-08-25, Peter Durand received a patent for preserving food in sealed containers—associated with the move from glass to tinned iron containers, a key step toward durable shipboard canned provisions.
By 1813, Donkin, Hall, and Gamble had established a Bermondsey factory producing preserved foods in tinned-iron containers—helping make canning a practical provisioning option alongside biscuit and salted meats.
Royal Clarence Yard was established in 1828 at Gosport as a principal purpose-built Royal Navy victualling establishment, supporting large-scale baking, meat processing, and cask-based storage vital to preserved provisioning.
In 1847, preserved beef in tins was officially issued to the Royal Navy, signaling a decisive 19th-century transition in voyage provisioning from primarily salted/dried fare toward industrial canning.
Salted, dried, and preserved provisioning practices for Atlantic voyages (c. 15th–19th centuries)
