Update: Sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln had it a lot easier than Nelson’s crews | Letters

The Guardian — Opinion has reported on “Update: Sailors on the USS Abraham Lincoln had it a lot easier than Nelson’s crews | Letters,” presenting it as the central development in the source material available for this brief.

The available account reports that american sailors who were at sea for 286 days really have nothing to complain about, insists Chris Hardy You report ( 4 September ) that sailors from the USS Abraham Lincoln spent a “record uninterrupted 286 days at sea”. The report also notes that That’s nowhere near a record: Nelson and his fleet blockaded Toulon for two years, 1803-05, without going ashore. The American sailors complain about the food on their carrier; Nelson’s ships were exposed to terrible weather in which they pitched and rolled violently, and were cold, wet and plagued by rats. No electricity, let alone fridges; they ate salt pork and rock-hard bread full of weevils, drank green water, and every so often fought a battle or sailed to the Caribbean and back.

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