At the morning washdown the black slops that went by the name of coffee tasted like the very nectar of the gods. We dipped in with our hook pots, drinking it with relish, and the fact that it possessed mild cathartic properties, may have had something to do with the excellent state of our health. Cockroaches were not mentioned in the old scale of provisions[5] adopted by a kind Congress for the nourishment of the simple sailor-man. This was no doubt an oversight on the part of some bucolic "sailor's friend," for they might have specified that "one ounce of cockroaches may be substituted for an ounce of tea." [5] The following is the Scale of Provisions allowed and served out to the Crew during the voyage in addition to the daily issue of lime and lemon juice and sugar, or other antiscorbutics in any case required by law. ---------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+---+------+-----+----- |Bread|Beef |Pork |Flour|Peas |Rice |Barley|Tea|Coffee|Sugar|Water | lb. | lb. | lb. | lb. | pt. | pt. | pt. |oz.| oz. | oz. | qt. ---------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+---+------+-----+----- Sunday | 1 |1-1/2| ... | 1/2 | ... | ... | ... |1/8| 1/2 | 2 | 3 Monday | 1 | ... |1-1/4| ... |1-1/8| ... | ... |1/8| 1/2 | 2 | 3 Tuesday | 1 |1-1/2| ... | 1/2 | ... | ... | ... |1/8| 1/2 | 2 | 3 Wednesday| 1 | ... |1-1/4| ... |1-1/8| ... | ... |1/8| 1/2 | 2 | 3 Thursday | 1 |1-1/2| ... | 1/2 | ... | ... | ... |1/8| 1/2 | 2 | 3 Friday | 1 | ... |1-1/4| ... |1-1/8| ... | ... |1/8| 1/2 | 2 | 3 Saturday | 1 |1-1/2| ... | ... | ... | ... | ... |1/8| 1/2 | 2 | 3 ---------+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+-----+------+---+------+-----+----- SUBSTITUTES One ounce of coffee or cocoa or chocolate may be substituted for one quarter ounce of tea; molasses for sugar, the quantity to be one half more; one pound of potatoes or yams; one half pound of flour or rice; one third pint of peas or one quarter pint of barley may be substituted for each other. When fresh meat is issued, the proportion to be two pounds per man, per day, in lieu of salt meat. Flour, rice, and peas, beef and pork, may be substituted for each other, and for potatoes onions may be substituted. NOTE BY AUTHOR.--The above is from the fo'c'sle card of the ship _A. J. Fuller_, taken when I left her. This scale of provisions was greatly amplified a few years later. It was found that a shipmaster sticking close to the law in the matter of provisioning could easily starve a crew, as there was no control over quality. On the _Fuller_, the owners were liberal in provisioning. Such trouble as we had was due to the conditions of deep water voyages.