The Manila Galleon route, which ran between the ports of Acapulco in New Spain and Manila, was one of the longest routes sailed from 1565 until the nineteenth century. Voyages to the Philippines were shorter, lasting around three months. Eastbound voyages lasted far longer, between four and eight months, but were provisioned for six months at sea. The ships were enormous for the early modern period. Each one carried thousands of tons of Asian trade goods and slaves to New Spain from the Philippines. From New Spain to the Philippines, they carried huge amounts of silver. On board each of the vessels were hundreds of people, including sailors (obviously), but also government officials, soldiers, merchants, travelers, prisoners, and slaves.

William Lytle Schurz's book The Manila Galleon provides a useful overview of provisions carried by some of these vessels. He wrote that "the Santiago in 1590 carried 40,000 pounds of biscuit, 2,388 pounds of salt meat, besides garbanzos, beans, 50 bacons, 900 cheeses, a large quality of oil and vinegar, and 400 pounds of onions and garlic. The Covadonga in 1742 carried 42,700 pounds of biscuits, 12,925 pounds of salt beef, 4,275 pounds of salt pork, 358 bushels of rice, 286 pounds of sugar and lesser amounts of other items" (217). The galleons also would have had fresh provisions like fruits and vegetables. Water was carried in earthen jars, likely some barrels as well. The ships also had an improvised system of rainwater collection. Wealthier travelers consumed wine, chocolate, and other delights. They might also have traveled also with live animals, including chickens and pigs.

Unfortunately for travelers, their provisions inevitably spoiled over time. Fresh provisions had to be consumed early in the journey, leaving the more shelf stable provisions, if we can call them that, for later in the voyage. There are numerous reports from travelers about the dreadful food they had to stomach, such as eating spoiled bread and root vegetables filled with maggots. The salted meats dried into impossibly tough leathers or spoiled into a rotten, stinking messes. Water supplies could and did become putrid. Regardless of the amount of wealth a person brought on board, the experience on these voyages was miserable. Quarters were cramped. Disease was rampant, and everyone's bodies were more susceptible to it without good diets. Yet, wealthier people were able to buy more food and had access to a more diverse diet. Poorer sailors, prisoners, and slaves died in droves, which their meager diets undoubtedly contributed to.

Yet just because they sailed one of the longest, most isolated routes in the world at the time did not mean they were completely without contact to the world. Galleons made landfall in the Marianas Islands, then known as the Ladrones, on the westerly journey. They passed a few weeks taking on supplies and water here before finishing the journey to the Philippines. They might also be met by other vessels coming out to meet them to bring them supplies. Ships travelling east had a much more challenging passage, but they too made landfall, this time along the coast of California, where they could resupply, take on water, and send messages to New Spain. They then sailed southward to Acapulco. Arrival on the coast often came just in time to ward off complete starvation or dehydration. Tatiana Seijas in her book Asian Slaves in Colonial Mexico states that these landfalls likely offered opportunities for travelers to engage in some degree of smuggling, perhaps even allowing some of the transpacific slaves that the vessels carried to disembark.

It might be interesting to compare the provisions carried by the Manila galleons with those carried by Polynesians. Europeans after all were not the only vessels plying the Pacific in the early modern period. What people carried as provisions says as much about their own food cultures in the ports of origins as they do about survival and preservation techniques.