Resumen

JAUREGUI-LOBERA, Ignacio. Navigation and history of science. Life on board: men of the sea in the 16th Century. JONNPR [online]. 2020, vol.5, n.3, pp.347-358.  Epub 28-Sep-2020. ISSN 2529-850X.  https://dx.doi.org/10.19230/jonnpr.3433.

The objective of this study was to synthesize the basic aspects of the Spanish sailors´ life on board in the 16th century. Given the time they used to spend sailing, the ship was the sailors´ main residence, a better or worse “house” depending on the range of the crew. But if life on board was hard, many of those sailors were in glory when compared with their hardships on land, at least they could eat on the ship. To many hours of work were palliated with some leisure based on games, some religious readings and sex on board, which they also had. Shipwrecks, fires, epidemics, battles and other diverse scares “entertained” the intrepid sailors, a sort of hustlers of the time. All this in the midst of unfortunate hygienic-sanitary conditions, which were not much worse than those offered on the mainland.

Palabras clave : Life on board; Men of the sea; Sailors; Navigation; 16th Century; Scurvy.

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