Bradford is authority for the statement that with the “governor” of the ship’s company were chosen “two or three assistants . . . to order [regulate] the people by the way [on the passage] and see to the disposition of the provisions,” etc.  The last-named duty must have been a most difficult and wearisome one.  From what has been shown of the poverty of the ship’s cooking facilities (especially for so large a company), one must infer that it would be hopeless to expect to cook food in any quantity, except when all conditions favored, and then but slowly and with much difficulty.  From the fact that so many would require food at practically the same hours of the day, it is clear that there must have been distribution of food (principally uncooked) to groups or families, who, with the aid of servants (when available), must each have prepared their own meals, cooking as occasion and opportunity indicated; much after the manner of the steerage passengers in later days, but before those of the great ocean liners.  There appears to have been but one cook for the officers and crew of the ship, and his hands were doubtless full with their demands.  It is certain that his service to the passengers must have been very slight.  That “the cook” is named as one of the ship’s crew who died in Plymouth harbor (New England) is all the knowledge we have concerning him.

The use of and dependence upon tea and coffee, now so universal, and at sea so seemingly indispensable, was then unknown, beer supplying their places, and this happily did not have to be prepared with fire.  “Strong waters”—­Holland gin and to some extent “aqua vitae” (brandy)—­were relied upon for the (supposed) maintenance of warmth.  Our Pilgrim Fathers were by no means “total abstainers,” and sadly bewailed being deprived of their beer when the supply failed.  They also made general and habitual (moderate) use of wine and spirits, though they sharply interdicted and promptly punished their abuse.

In the absence of cooking facilities, it became necessary in that day to rely chiefly upon such articles of food as did not require to be prepared by heat, such as biscuit (hard bread), butter, cheese ("Holland cheese” was a chief staple with the Pilgrims), “haberdyne” (or dried salt codfish), smoked herring, smoked ("cured “) ham and bacon, “dried neat’s tongues,” preserved and “potted” meats (a very limited list in that day), fruits, etc.  Mush, oatmeal, pease-puddings, pickled eggs, sausage meats, salt beef and pork, bacon, “spiced beef,” such few vegetables as they had (chiefly cabbages, turnips, and onions,—­there were no potatoes in that day), etc., could be cooked in quantity, when the weather permitted, and would then be eaten cold.

Except as dried or preserved fruits, vegetables (notably onions), limes, lemon juice, and the free use of vinegar feebly counteracted, their food was distinctively stimulant of scorbutic and tuberculosis disease, which constant exposure to cold and wet and the overcrowded state of the ship could but increase and aggravate.  Bradford narrates of one of the crew of the may-Flower when in Plymouth harbor, as suggestive of the wretched conditions prevalent in the ship, that one of his shipmates, under an agreement to care for him, “got him a little spice and made him a mess of beef, once or twice,” and then deserted him.