# What did the sailors on Columbus' ships do all day? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 14, 2015, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214 "2015-09-14T16:16:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/1 "2015-09-14T16:16:09Z")
[Here](http://christopher-columbus.eu/ships-crew.htm) is a link to the ship manifest for Christopher Columbus’ first voyage across the Atlantic. Some of the crew members have occupations next to their names (i.e. Columbus was “captain-general”. There is also listed things like “master at arms”, “goldsmith”, “cooper”, “carpenter” and “physician”). Most of them, though, are just named, without any accompanying occupation. So what did those people do all day? It seems to me that if you are on a ship traveling for weeks in the middle of the ocean, without clear direction on where you are going or how long it will take, that there isn’t much to do except fish and enjoy the fresh air. Even if you are a skilled craftsman, is there really that much work to be done each day? Maybe you sew a rip in a sail, or tighten down some loose screws, but after you’re done, can’t you just kick back with the rest of your mates and watch the waves go by? I’m thinking that most of the crew wouldn’t really be needed until they hit land, when they would expect there to be spices to haul, people to subjugate, and gold to horde. Until then, was there anything going on? If I’m Luis de Torres, (listed as “interpreter”), can’t I just put my feet up and say, “wake me when we find some Indians”? ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/2 "2015-09-14T16:23:08Z")
Just sailing a ship like that took a massive amount of constant work. All of those zillions of ropes and sticks and pieces of cloth not only take constant maintenance, but also constant fiddling; moving stuff around to make the ship go where you want it to go. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/3 "2015-09-14T16:28:28Z")
Not sure what a goldsmith would do all day long. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/4 "2015-09-14T16:28:54Z")
The exact same things sailors do today. Maintenance, maintenance and more maintenance. The sea is brutal on men (and women) and material. Ask anyone who owns a boat. ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/5 "2015-09-14T16:29:52Z")
The sailors would also be tossing the log and recording speed, direction, etc. this is where the Columbus story gets strange-supposedly, he kept the crew in the dark about how far they had sailed-although, he fully expected to sight land 800 (Spanish) miles west of the Azores. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/6 "2015-09-14T16:30:19Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > Not sure what a goldsmith would do all day long. I would guess most of the crew were able to do more than one thing. The goldsmith was probably hoisting sails when goldsmithing wasn’t necessary. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/7 "2015-09-14T16:31:22Z")
> [@Morgenstern](#): > > Not sure what a goldsmith would do all day long. I’m sure the goldsmith was part of the crew in order to deal with all the treasure they expected to find. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/8 "2015-09-14T16:34:02Z")
Putting up or taking down sails needed a lot of people, more than you’d think. Though any ship of Columbus’s time would probably sail with many more people than absolutely necessary to sail the ship, to give some leeway for the vast numbers of sailors that would be lost to scurvy, plague, yellow fever or whatnot. And of course, once the sails are set, there’s mostly just waiting around for the wind to change, when sails need to be re-set. So, yeah, there would be a lot of time without anything specific for a lot of the crew. Which I suspect is why navies in the age of sail were somewhat famous for religiously cleaning the entire ship every day (when not in actual storm or battle conditions), and other keep-em-busy kind of antics (in addition to actual necessary maintenance). ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/9 "2015-09-14T16:38:23Z")
Have you ever seen examples of [scrimshaw](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrimshaw)? This is carving or engraving done in bone or ivory and is an example of what sailors on whaling ships did during their downtime. I’ve seen examples of other sorts of shipboard crafts on shows like Antiques Roadshow. Presumably in Columbus’s days, sailors had other crafts they would make onboard. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/10 "2015-09-14T16:39:32Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > [Here](http://christopher-columbus.eu/ships-crew.htm) is a link to the ship manifest for Christopher Columbus’ first voyage across the Atlantic. Some of the crew members have occupations next to their names (i.e. Columbus was “captain-general”. There is also listed things like “master at arms”, “goldsmith”, “cooper”, “carpenter” and “physician”). Most of them, though, are just named, without any accompanying occupation. Master at Arms probably kept security on ship, and likely had other dutuies at sea relating to command. A carpenter and cooper will have full time jobs fixing parts of the ship or the barrels that held their supplies. Physcian would also likely be a full time job with all the various ailments that happen on shipboard. Not sure what the goldsmith on a ship would do, but on land they were often the closest thing there was to a bank, so perhaps they were the ship’s accountant/exchequer? ---
**Author:** ![dr\_zippermeyer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c0e974/32.png) [@dr\_zippermeyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dr_zippermeyer)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/11 "2015-09-14T16:40:59Z")
I heard from somewhere that building ships in bottle was one way to spend time. I don’t know when it got started. Maybe on that journey? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/12 "2015-09-14T16:43:26Z")
> [@Quercus](#): > > So, yeah, there would be a lot of time without anything specific for a lot of the crew. Which I suspect is why navies in the age of sail were somewhat famous for religiously cleaning the entire ship every day (when not in actual storm or battle conditions), and other keep-em-busy kind of antics (in addition to actual necessary maintenance). I bet most of those things weren’t really busy work, they were just _anticipatory_ work that often isn’t necessary. I know from sailing on a (much smaller) sailboat that any time you’re not actively doing other things, you’re coiling up lines and cleaning up bits of things and checking that everything is stowed correctly. You coil the lines because, if the conditions change rapidly, those lines better not be tangled around something. And you clear the deck because a boat is already an unstable surface to walk on, and a slight reduction in the chance that someone will trip over something is worth some extra work. The other reason to check and double check everything is that big problems on boats often start as small problems on boats. If everything gets cleaned and inspected twice a day, you notice the fraying line before it snaps, and the trickle that could sink you if it goes unfixed. ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/13 "2015-09-14T18:09:21Z")
> [@Smeghead](#): > > …moving stuff around to make the ship go where you want it to go. [QUOTE=Quercus] And of course, once the sails are set, there’s mostly just waiting around for the wind to change, when sails need to be re-set. [/QUOTE] This, I guess, was the part that I was misunderstanding. I figured that since they were heading into uncharted waters, with a vague sense of going West, steering wasn’t all that important. But with a sailing ship, I guess you’d still have to adjust the sails to catch the wind to head in your intended direction. Now, I’m thinking that there is almost _no_ downtime on Columbus’ ship! Would people work in shifts? ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/14 "2015-09-14T18:16:17Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > If I’m Luis de Torres, (listed as “interpreter”), can’t I just put my feet up and say, “wake me when we find some Indians”? If this was Columbus’ first voyage, how did he choose a suitable interpreter (i. e. what languages did he speak)? ---
**Author:** ![hotflungwok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/edb3f5/32.png) [@hotflungwok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hotflungwok)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/15 "2015-09-14T18:20:50Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > So what did those people do all day? Rum, sodomy, and the lash. Or was that the English? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/16 "2015-09-14T18:39:02Z")
> [@hotflungwok](#): > > Rum, sodomy, and the lash. Or was that the English? "Our day began at dawn, where, after a hearty breakfast, we had punishment 'til lunchtime. After lunch, there was more punishment 'til dinner. After dinner, we would pull up anchor and sail for an hour, then drop anchor again for some verbal humiliation, followed by evening punishment. " “Sir? I was thinking, wouldn’t we make better progress if we was under sail 14 hours a day, and had punishment only two hours a day, instead of the other way 'round?” ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/17 "2015-09-14T18:50:10Z")
No mention yet of the cabin boys, trying to hide as best they could while praying for dawn to arrive? ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/18 "2015-09-14T18:57:39Z")
> [@Donnerwetter](#): > > If this was Columbus’ first voyage, how did he choose a suitable interpreter (i. e. what languages did he speak)? Thanks for asking, since it caused me to look up the answer, and to discover that Luis de Torres was Jewish (by heritage; he apparently had converted to Catholicism shortly before the voyage to avoid being expelled from Spain)! Per [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Torres), he spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Portuguese and “Columbus hoped that the interpreter’s skills would be useful in Asia because they would enable him to communicate with local Jewish traders, and he may also have believed that he would find descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.” (As a reminder, Columbus wasn’t expecting to reach the new world. He figured he’d end up in Asia, a land that Europe had already made contact with.) ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/19 "2015-09-14T19:00:12Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > No mention yet of the cabin boys, trying to hide as best they could while praying for dawn to arrive? Per the link in the OP (no idea if it is accurate), on the Santa Maria there was one “Pedro de Terreros, cabin boy” (No idea how much buggery he had to endure). Strangely, no Dred Pirate is listed. ---
**Author:** ![Donnerwetter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Donnerwetter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Donnerwetter)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2015, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214/20 "2015-09-14T19:10:49Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > Thanks for asking, since it caused me to look up the answer, and to discover that Luis de Torres was Jewish (by heritage; he apparently had converted to Catholicism shortly before the voyage to avoid being expelled from Spain)! > > Per [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luis_de_Torres), he spoke Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Portuguese and “Columbus hoped that the interpreter’s skills would be useful in Asia because they would enable him to communicate with local Jewish traders, and he may also have believed that he would find descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.” > > (As a reminder, Columbus wasn’t expecting to reach the new world. He figured he’d end up in Asia, a land that Europe had already made contact with.) That’s interesting, thanks! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-the-sailors-on-columbus-ships-do-all-day/731214.md?page=2)