What's an average day like for a low ranking pirate on a ship in the 1700s?

by strangedigital

In terms of bathroom facilities, food, sleeping arrangement, chores, entertainment, laundry, friendships, social hierarchy.

How does it differ from a regular sailor on a merchant ship and/or a military vessel?

davidAOP

Part 1 of 2

You've asked a question that is seldom directly asked this way here at AskHistorians. People have asked side questions on other topics that have answered part of your inquiry, but never all together into one topic. I'll break it down into a way that makes it easier to answer all of these questions.

How does it [pirate daily life] differ from a regular sailor on a merchant ship and/or a military vessel?

Generally, in terms of tasks performed - not much at all. A ship didn't physically operate differently once it became a pirate ship. What did change was crew size and who did what.

A pirate crew could be tiny, but often they were of a large size for the vessels they sailed. between 40 to 80 was pretty common, 100 and beyond would be seen on the larger vessels with more than a dozen guns. While both civilian vessels and pirate crews had basic agreements as to the rules of the ship's operation, civilian vessels had terms laid out as to a set pay for the voyage and specific places the vessel would stop and sail. Not everyone necessarily signed the article of agreement on a pirate ship, some men were forced to serve on a pirate ship (especially skilled men like carpenters and coopers). On civilian vessels, the crew was often only big enough to just operate the vessel in the purpose it was built for (transporting some kind of cargo). Any extra men were added only when it was deemed necessary. On a pirate ship, crew size was an issue - but not as severely. Having a lot of men meant better chances of overpowering target vessels that put up a fight, more men to work the ship, and men to man any prizes taken by the pirates. These large crews made them similar to the Navy, but pirates never had the kind of discipline for duty that the Navy had. But the large pirate crews had the trade-off of plunder being split between more people means less profit per person, and feeding so many men can be an issue.
As for labor - it appears forced men might be made to do more of the hard work on the ship, especially if it required skill work. Slaves taken from vessels often got pressed into basic labor on the ship. With such large crew sizes, the forced men (those not onboard voluntarily) could be forced to do the needed work and the volunteer crew only pick up work on occasions when needed. Then again, when a crew started out or when a crew was new, there really wouldn't be that many forced men (if any) and work had to be dealt out according to need of the ship by the bosun. On non-pirate vessels, duties were assigned and watches were assigned for everyone onboard - so pirates don't differ that much there - though on a pirate vessels there's a chance of having more men than needed and some not needing to engage in a duty. For the Golden Age of Piracy, pirate crews after 1718 and especially after 1722 seemed to require many more forced men (less volunteers).

Now, the other points you wanted for pirate daily life:

bathroom facilities

No difference from other ships. You have leaning off the lee chains, heads up front, pissdales, chamber pots, inboard seats, and other stuff that is described in detail in this thread about maritime bathroom etiquette

food

Pirates obtained their food from vessels they stole. So anything that would have been on a civilian vessels would have also been on a pirate ship for food. Typically, sailors of the Age of Sail in the 17th to early 19th century overall consumed around 4,000 to 5,000 calories a day - enough to do work with ropes and maintain body temperature in clothes that got wet (and wet in salt water to boot, so it took some time for clothes to dry). There would be a lot of salted meat, in particular beefs and porks, hard breads (ship biscuit - or hard tack in the 19th century), pease, cheese, butter, sometimes rice, straight flour, and things that could be picked up locally (like fish or turtles - sea turtles were popular for how long they could be preserved on a ship - and a whole bunch of ships gathered them in the Caribbean to sell to ships). For drink - they drank what they could get, including brandy, Madeira wine, and of course rum. There weren't many beers that could keep in that climate, but rum was pretty prevalent since the Caribbean was right in the middle of sugar production central, which molasses is a by-product, which is used to make rum. They also had water, but they often mixed in alcohol with that since water doesn't keep long in barrels at sea. It's not to say the pirate/sailor elusively drank alcohol only, but it did make up a major part of their intake of liquids daily.

sleeping arrangement

By the Golden Age of Piracy, hammocks were is use by sailors. Pirates used them too. The canvas hammock, potentially along with some kind of pillow, mattress (yes, there were mattresses for hammocks), and wool blankets were all used. Though, some pirates decided not to use them. Before hammocks in the maritime world (hammocks didn't dominate for certain until after 1650), men slept on the decks (making a sea chest important for marking out your territory on a ship). In 1719, William Snelgrave, a slave ship captain captured by pirates on the coast of Africa, mentioned how the pirates mostly slept on the decks. Maybe it was laziness, though convenience seemed to play a factor since it made it easier to clear for action if it came about (just pushing bedding off to the side is easier than untieing hammocks from over head). How universal that is is uncertain. It should be pointed out that in the non-hammock arrangement, the decks below where these men slept were kept free of walls as much as possible to not only keep clear for action, but it could be interpreted as showing that the administration of the ship wasn't being held higher that the rest of the crew in value - no special quarters for them. Again, not necessarily universal, but the evidence is there for that action among some pirate crews at least.

Part 1 of 2