Supplies
Supplies are materials or provisions stored and dispensed when needed. So in this journey the materials we chose are elidgable for adequate survival of the crew.
So we chose stuff like food: Salted meats, especially pork. Hardtack, a form of hard biscuit. Peas, beans, or other bulk vegetable items. Salt, and a certain amount of spices or dried herbs if they had a decent cook. At the start of the trip, depending on how wealthy the captain, owner, and crew was, they might start with live animals, especially chickens, fresh veggies and fruits. The animals would be slaughtered fairly early on in the trip before the crew resorted to the salted meats. Average amount would be about a pound of meat a day per person, and a similar amount of other foods. By the 17th century some form of citrus would be available, like lemon or lime juice if nothing else, to hold off scurvy. Water would be stored in barrels, and a person needed an average of a gallon of water a day per person.
All of these supplies tended to go bad. Weevils would infest the hardtack and any flour products aboard after awhile, and the water would go bad from the microscopic growth in them. On average a ship’s water supply would go back after about 2 months. So even if a ship carried more water, it would tend to become undrinkable. So ships of the time would plan to make landfall somewhere where they could get fresh water, and either hunt or trade for some fresh food.
It was also common to carry alcohol, especially rum. The Navy woulr provide a daily ration of “grog”, or watered down rum, to its crews. This tended to make the water drinkable for a longer time, as well as keep the crews happy.
As for supplies for the ship. The officers would need sextants, telescopes, navigational books and maps, and other reference materials to sail the ship properly and calculate the ship’s location. The ship’s carpenter would have a good variety of tools at hand, including saws, hammers, nails, adzes, and other aides. A ship would also normally carry some spare spars, sails, and a lot of cordage and rope. They normally did not carry an entire mast, as this would be too bulky. There would be sand for the decks, and other items to keep the ship in shape. This would include paints and holystones. If there was a physician on the ship he’d have a medical kit, but his sickbay would normally be deep inside the ship.
Crew members would have their personal items, such as clothes, small musical instruments, whittling knives, and other personal effects. They would have their own sewing kits since they had to maintain their own clothing.
Weapon wise a ship would carry some cannon. Military ships would have from a dozen on small ships up to the 100 gun ships of the line. Merchantmen would normally carry from 2-6 guns on each side, with a single bow or stern chaser. These guns were generally to fight off boarding parties, and any serious pirate or privateer would not have problems outgunning the merchant. So a ship would need gunpowder, balls, and equipment to take care of the guns. Besides makeshift weapons like axes and belaying pins, a ship would normally have boarding pikes, cutlasses, and daggers for its crew to use. Military ships carrying marines might have musketeers, and officers might carry personal single shot pistols.
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