Life on board was marked to the sound of the bell, and it was also punctuated by meals and the distribution of supplies. L'Ordonnance de Louis XIV pour les armées navales et arcenaux de marine clearly states the general rules governing meals aboard ship (Chapter X, part III, On the distribution of supplies aboard ships, 1689):
"Supplies shall be distributed to the crew of a vessel at the usual times, on plates, to seven men at a timewho will eat together; & the meat, fish and vegetables shall be weighed (...) in the presence of a Ship's Officer, & the King's scribe, & shall be given to the Ship's Cook to be placed in the cauldron. (Art. III).
Each week, four meals of meat, three of fish & seven of vegetables shall be served. ... On Sundays, Tuesdays, & Thursdays, 28 ounces of cooked bacon shall be provided to feed seven men (equivalent to 856 g, or 122 g per person). On Mondays three and half livres of beef, with neither hoofs nor testes (1,713 g, or 244 g per person). On Wednesdays, Fridays & Saturdays, twenty-eight ounces of raw cod (856 g, or 122 g per person).
Each day for supper, 28 ounces of raw peas, groats, broad beans, fayols or other vegetables, or fourteen ounces of rice (428 g, or 61 g per person), also raw; all of it seasoned, i.e. with meat , a quart of bouillonin which has been cooked, for the purpose of making a soup, a mixture of a demi quarter of a pint of olive oil & and a quarter of a pint of vinegar (0,233 l), for seven men; & the peas, broad beans & fayols, rice or groats, salt & half-litre of olive oil for the rations of one hundred men, & placed in the cauldron over the bouillon which will be distributedwith the vegetables (Art.V)."
