Explorers and Pirates (1420-1779) Part III: Life On Board

 Supplies

We brainstormed and wrote a list of some of the supplies that explorers and pirates would need on board.

Food Stuffs: Hardtack, salted meat dried peas, oatmeal, cheese, butter, sauerkraut, fresh fruit and vegetables, lemons and limes water, beer, wine and rum, salt, salted meat,

Other supplies: coils of rope, sewing kit for sails, sailcloth, kitchen supplies, mirrors, glass beads, bells, brightly colored cloth (for trading), sea charts, logbook, compass, backstaff, log line, hour glass, hammocks, hook and lines, sea chests, oil lanterns and oil.

Knot Tying

The boys learned to tie some knots. You can get short lengths of rope and have them tie knots and glue these on to a page to keep in your notebook along with your other work.

Here is a good link (Boy's Life) with a video that you can play at your own speed and easily stop and start again.

Feed Those Scurvy Pirates Day

Seamen had to have foodstuffs that were preserved so that it would last on board for a long period of time. Have a seaman's snack of dried foods such as dried beef or beef jerky. 

We made our own, but you can get some dried meat easily at the grocery store, which we found easier to do in a co-op setting. They also had dried fruit, which you can make yourself or buy at the store and hard tack, a thick dry cracker. You can make the hardtack or buy a thick cracker. We also learned about the disease scurvy and how it is caused by a lack of vitamin C. Sailors learned to carry fresh citrus fruit or sauerkraut on board to prevent the disease. We had lemon-limeaid with our snack.

Make Your Own Timeline of Explorers and Pirates
Homeschool in the Woods has a wonderful section that talks about all kinds of timelines you can make. My favorite is the accordian fold timeline, but you can use whatever suits your needs. What date would you start an explorers and pirates timeline?

Once you decide, you could start by adding this explorer, who gives his name to our country, to your timeline.

Amerigo Vespucci
(1454 – 1512) was an Italian explorer, navigator and cartographer.

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