I had a dream last night about being on an old-style sailing ship. The crew member in the crow’s nest was a chicken. It was a little odd, so I asked why there was a chicken on lookout. The quartermaster said, “Well, their heads can lock in place while they’re moving, so their line of sight is stable. They don’t get seasick.” The chicken agreed, and said it was a decent enough job for a crewmember without hands.
I woke up, and obviously was a little confused by what the hell my brain threw at me. But it does posit the question, do chickens get seasick?
Im sure sailors keep chickens or at least some egg laying bird that can eat scraps.
They did! In the age of sail where there was little understanding of food preservation and no refrigeration, livestock was routinely kept aboard.
Unfortunately, upon going into battle, clearing for action involved removing said livestock. If there was time and they were lucky, they were set adrift on a boat or barge. Otherwise…
I was on a replica of one of Columbus’ ships (forget which one) but they told us livestock was too valuable to keep in the weather so the humans slept on top, livestock in the hold. The ship was astonishingly small.
So the humans would be the ones dying of exposure. God damn was human life cheap
Yep! OTOH people were way tougher back then. But yeah, human life was cheaper than the livestock. Which kinda makes sense. You don’t know the conditions at your destination, but you’ll need food for the survivors.
I’d rather end up alone with one cow and one bull than 20 mouths to feed and no way to do it. There’s a term, “terrible algebra”, something like that?