A breakdown of the nationalities of the crew reveals that nearly half were English (49 per cent), and the rest were made up of a large contingent of Irishmen (24 per cent); a number of Scotsmen (12 per cent), and Welshmen (7 per cent); and a variety of foreigners (8 per cent). The foreigners included 13 black sailors (9 from the West Indies, 3 from Africa, 1 from America) as well as 2 Dutchmen, a Frenchman, a Swede, a Portuguese, a Maltese, a Bengal Indian, one man from Guernsey and one from the Isle of Man. It is not surprising to find that more men came from coastal towns and cities with ports than came from inland towns: 30 men came from Dublin, 26 from London, 10 from Bristol and 10 from Liverpool, with other ports like Swansea, Newcastle, Cork and King's Lynn being well represented.
The average age of the crew in Rotheram's study is thirty. There were 55 men in their forties, 11 in their fifties and the oldest man in the crew was 56. Since the life of a seaman in the age of sail was extremely tough and physically demanding, particularly for those hands required to work aloft, we find that most of the older men had less demanding duties. James Gill, aged 51, and Thomas Nichols, 50, were both quartermasters - experienced petty officers - whose job it was to keep an eye on the helmsman at the wheel and relay the orders of the officer of the watch. The majority of the crew (72 per cent) were unmarried, and 6 were widowed. The 102 seamen on board who were married would have had little chance to see their families during the long period of the war against France. Some wives made heroic effforts to travel to Portsmouth or Plymouth for a chance to see their husbands but all too often the men were refused shore leave in case they deserted. One of the later captains of the Bellerophon gave specific orders to his lieutenants to prevent any men getting away from the ship when she was anchored off Spithead. No boats were to go ashore unless absolutely necessary and those that went were to have a sufficient number of officers 'to prevent the men from running'. This was one of the biggest sources of grievance for many sailors. William Richardson, who was pressed from a merchant ship and served on several warships between 1790 and 1815, spoke for many when he wrote, 'I think it only fair and just, that when seamen are pressed, in coming home from a long voyage, they should be allowed a few week's liberty on shore to spend their money among their friends and relations; when that was gone, they would soon be tired of the shore, return more contented to their ships, and by such means there would not be half so much desertion.'
The outward appearance of the seamen was as varied as might be expected in a crew drawn from all over Britain and beyond. Standing on the quarterdeck and looking down on the assembled crew for a Sunday service, Captain Rotheram would have seen a sea of faces of all shapes and colours. According to his survey their complexions ranged from pale, fair and fresh to sallow, swarthy, dark and negro. There were thin faces, long faces, round and full faces, and a large number of faces pitted from smallpox. There were men who were thickset, strong-made, very stout and muscular, and 'well looking' and there were men who were ill-looking, thin, emaciated and 'very infirm, good for nothing'. A lot of men had tattoos. John Nichols, a 22-year-old Londoner, had a centaur, a heart and the initials 'MS' on his left arm and a crucifix, a sun, moon and stars on his right arm. Robert Stewart, a 50-year-old Irishman, had a fish and anchor on one arm and a mermaid and a woman with an umbrella on the other arm. Most had a few initials and the traditional anchor or mermaid. Thirty men had scars or various injuries: six had lost the sight of one eye; six had lost fingers, two had wounds from musket balls and several had injuries or disfigurements caused by falls.
One of the most interesting aspects of Captain Rotheram's survey is the information which it provides about the occupations of the men before going to sea. Twenty men had worked in dockyard trades (as shipwrights, sailmakers, coopers, caulkers, ropemakers and anchorsmiths) and most of these were employed in the same capacities on board the Bellerophon. No fewer than 174 men (or 45 per cent of the men in the survey) had previously been merchant seamen, mostly in the West India trade or the coal trade. There were also 8 fishermen, a Thames waterman, a Swansea boatman and a Dover pilot. Most of these men were probably victims of the press gang. The navy urgently needed professional seamen and the press gangs therefore concentrated their efforts on seaports and harbours. They frequently intercepted homecoming merchant ships and stripped them of large numbers of sailors.
The survey also reveals that there were 119 landsmen in the crew with no previous experience of the sea. Twenty-seven of them listed their previous occupation as labourers, 16 had been weavers, 14 were farmers and 11 were shoemakers. The rest included almost every trade and working-class occupation current at the time, from bricklayers and blacksmiths to masons and miners. There were representatives from every shop to be found in a typical high street (a hatter, a tailor, a butcher, an ironmonger, a mercer and a haberdasher) but, apart from one lawyer, there were no men from the middle-class professions such as teachers, bankers, merchants or the clergy.
This miscellaneous bunch of men had to be moulded into a disciplined team able to respond immediately to a variety of situations ranging from preparing for action to working to windward in a gale. This was achieved by constant practice in shiphandling and gunnery and by the establishment of a regular routine when the ship was at sea. We get a glimpse of the daily routine on board the Bellerophon from a surviving order book kept by Captain Edward Hawker, who commanded the ship from 1813 until the spring of 1815. Hawker was the son of a naval captain. He had seen action in the West Indies and had considerable experience as a commander of ships of the line. On 17 June 1813, when the Bellerophon was at sea off the coast of Newfoundland, he issued an order to his officers which specified the tasks to be carried out each day of the week 'when the weather and service will permit'.
On Sunday morning the men were to draw clean hammocks and sling them. After the lower deck and cockpit had been cleaned the crew were to dress smartly and muster for the church service. The afternoon was free, apart from 'seeing to the indispensible duties of the ship'. Monday was busier. In the morning the men were to wash their clothes, and hang them on the lines which had been rigged the evening before; they were then to exercise the great guns and small arms; in the afternoon they were to replace any deficiencies in the gun equipment and in the evening there were more gunnery exercises 'to make the men perfect in this duty'. On Tuesday morning the hammocks were to be scrubbed until 9.30. The marines were to exercise small arms. In the afternoon the bedding was to be aired. On Wednesday morning the men's bags, and also boat sails and covers, screens and blankets were to be scrubbed. The rest of the morning was to be devoted to exercises in reefing and furling the sails. In the afternoon one division of the great guns was to be exercised.
On Thursday the crew were mustered so that their clothes and bags could be inspected by the officers. During the muster the master-at-arms and corporals were to 'visit every part of the ship to pick up spare clothes, which are to be brought on the quarterdeck'. The afternoon was to be spent mending clothes. More washing of clothes took place on Friday morning, and another division of guns was to be exercised. Every other Saturday morning the ship's fire engine was to be used to wash the poop, and in dry weather the lower deck and cockpits were to be washed. The ship was to be pumped afterwards with the chain pumps.
The memoirs of various seamen of the period add colour and detail to this somewhat stark account of daily life at sea. Depending on the captain and the time of year, the day began at 4 or 5 am when the cook and his mate got up and lit the galley fire, the men on overnight watch were relieved, and the men on the next watch were roused by the boatswain's mates in order to wash the decks — a job which involved scrubbing the decks with brushes, or blocks made of Portland stone (called holystones because they were the same shape and size as bibles). A seaman called Samuel Leech tells us: After the decks are well rubbed with these stones, they are wiped dry with swabs made of rope-yarns. By this means the utmost cleanliness is preserved in the ship.'