Crew

The crews we had on the Star of India were the Galley, Deckhands, Linehandlers, Riggers, and Boatswains. Each crew had a certain job, we all had different stuff to do. Not everybody got to do the same thing. The Galley crew was responsible for everybody’s meals, we had breakfast and dinner. Other jobs they did were cooking, cleaning, serving, attending to the captain, cargo handling, using a block and tackle, and rat hunting. The Deckhands crew was responsible for operations on deck. Other jobs included: handling cargo, using a block and tackle, raising sails, using a capstan, and furling a square sail. The Linehandlers crew was responsible for handling all the lines, and keeping ships time.  Other jobs included, ringing the ship’s bells, and going up the mast in the boatswains chair. The riggers were responsible for the ship’s rigging, and the setting up of sails and equipment. Other jobs included rigging of block and tackle systems, cargo handling using block and tackle, and furling a square sail. The boatswains crew was responsible for the ship’s maintenance. Other jobs the boatswains did included rigging of block and tackle systems, and going up the mast in the boatswains chair. In each of the crews had a mate. He or she was like our leader. The captain or the first mate would give the mate an order and then the mate would tell his or her crew the order. The crew would then say, "aye aye," and they would do whatever they had to do.

People navigated ships with a compass to find where they were. They measured latitude by turning the pointer on a metal disk called astrolabe toward the sun. However, astrolabes were designed for use on land. Sailors couldn’t get an accurate reading on a bouncing ship. For a more accurate reading, they used a cross staff and could find latitude by measuring the angle of the horizon in relation to the north star. To do this, the sailor aimed the crosspiece so that it lined up with the North Star at its top and the horizon at its bottom. The lower the north star, the farther south the ship was.