As the war went on there were loud complaints of corruption in the victualling and shipbuilding departments, and the grievances of the seamen were set forth in pamphlets by Robert Crosfield, William Hodges, George St. Lo and other writers. Hodges published in 1695 _Great Britain’s Groans: or an account of the oppression, ruin, and destruction of the loyal Seamen of England, in the fatal loss of their pay, health, and lives, and dreadful ruin of their families_. One grievance was impressment, a greater that men, once pressed, were kept at sea continuously, and not allowed any interval of liberty between their cruises. But their greatest grievances related to their pay: their wages were too long delayed; they were transferred from ship to ship without being paid; they were obliged to sell the certificates for their wages at half-price to ticket-buyers, and so on. Besides this, they were badly fed and harshly treated. In the good old days, said a pamphleteer, ‘they were not poisoned by bad provisions, pease bread, and stinking beef and pork.’ Moreover, ‘such men as General Blake, the Earl of Sandwich, Dean, Lawson, Bourne, Minns, etc. were familiar with their sailors, and instead of calling them damned dogs or sons of whores, called them brethren’ (_Remarks upon the Navy. In a Letter from a Sailor to a Member of the House of Commons_, 1700, part ii. p. 14). These grievances found expression in a ballad called _The Sea Martyrs, or the Seamen’s Sad Lamentation of their faithful service, bad pay, and cruel usage_, which the vigilant Pepys preserved, but forgot to date (see p. 140). The sailors punished were evidently regarded as popular heroes, and the ballad is a parallel to those written later on the mutiny of 1797. A grievance still more often mentioned was that the food was defective both in quality and quantity. Balthorpe’s verse narrative of his cruise in the Mediterranean in 1669-1671 is full of complaints. Within a month after leaving England the crew of the St. David were put upon short allowance. ‘What meat before the King for four Allowed, now six men it devour; A dollar to each man is due, Each twenty-eight days ’tis true: When we can get it we drink wine.’ The wine which the sailors could cheaply procure in the Mediterranean ports compensated for the scantiness of the food: ‘A seaman when he gets ashore In one day’s time he spendeth more Than three months short allowance money. ... Their beef and pork is very scant, I’me sure of weight one half it want; A kind of horse beans they do get for pease, No nourishment at all there is in these; Instead of English cheese or butter A little oyl we get, God wot, far worser. A little rice we get instead of fish Which unto you is known, but a poor dish: Except good sauce to put it in you had, For with good sauce a deal-board is not bad.’