Hello, I'm trying to get an idea of the type of men on board a 17th century English merchant ship, sailing to the Mediterranean - what a typical crew was like in nature. I read an account from the captain of a 'ship-money fleet' (meant to combat pirates in the English Channel) and the class of men was, in his description, the roughest and most miserable one can imagine.
There are also accounts I've found of men on the privateering ships, but because of the 'treasure-seeking' nature of these journeys, I could reasonably assume they might be of varied, working backgrounds. Alexander Selkirk, for instance.
Would a merchant ship's crew generally have been better educated/less likely to run in with the law, or about the same? 1630s is the specific decade I'm thinking about.
I thoroughly recommend Tide in the affairs of men. The social history of Elizabethan Seaman 1580-1603. By Cheryl Fury. She gives a great account of of both seaman, their communities, and the owners and masters of the ships.
In general she paints a much more revisionist view of conditions and Seaman than earlier works which focus on violent discipline. Her arguments focus more on Seaman being an early form of unionism that knew their worth and concerned with safety, conditions and pay. She also argues there was a much more consentual relationship between seamen and owners caused in part through the different labour dynamics at sea.