Welcome down to the gundeck. You are standing on a hatch which leads down into the hold. Above you is the maindeck hatch. If you look towards the front of the ship, just behind the ladder you’ll see a large, wooden, H-shaped structure called ‘bitts’. The bitts extend down through the deck to the ships keel and are therefore incredibly strong. The anchor rope was tied to the bitts when the anchor was lowered.
Towards the stern, behind the mast, is the lower half of the ship’s capstan. You can hear more about this in the armoury.
The majority of the ship’s crew would have slept on the gundeck, without beds or hammocks. The space would have been incredibly crowded and likely quite smelly. It was fairly hard to wash at sea, due to the need to ration fresh water, and many mariners on this deck would have had only one set of clothes, which they would have worked and slept in. To make matters worse, live animals, like sheep, goats, and hens, would have been kept on this deck. These animals would have provided the crew with a supply of milk, wool, and eggs, but also added considerably to the bad smells and filth.
To improve living conditions, and avoid disease, mariners would have worked hard to keep the deck as clean as possible and ensuring cleanliness was one of the responsibilities of the ship’s quartermasters. Nevertheless, it must have been a welcome relief when the ship made land and the crew were able to spend some time ashore after months at sea.
At full strength, the 16th century Golden Hinde had a crew of around 80 men and boys. Around 60 of them would have slept on this deck. Whilst there is no full crew list, we know many of their names from other surviving documents, including legal documents bearing testimony to Drake’s fair treatment of Spanish prisoners, signed by 45 members of his crew.
The crew of The Golden Hinde were not all from the British Isles. We know that there were men onboard from Belgium, Denmark, Portugal, Spain, and West Africa – some of these men joined at the outset, others were brought aboard from ships captured during the Voyage.
We also know of one woman who sailed on The Golden Hinde. She is referred to in surviving documents as ‘Maria’. Maria was an enslaved, African woman who was onboard a Spanish galleon attacked by The Hinde in the Pacific. She, and two other men, came aboard The Hinde and were technically no longer enslaved. They stayed with the ship for nine months until they were left on an island near modern day Indonesia, reportedly with seeds and agricultural tools. Maria was heavily pregnant. Historians debate whether they were set ashore as an act of kindness or cruelty.
On this deck are 14 guns called ‘minions’. Guns of this size and slightly larger were the main armament of The Golden Hinde. The process of firing and loading was fairly complicated and efficient use of the ship’s guns required a well-trained, well organised crew. Before firing, they need to be brought inboard, cleaned and cooled, loaded with powder and shot, and then returned to the proper position and elevation. The gun crew would then wait for the command to fire.
In the 16th century, ship’s guns were becoming an increasingly important part of naval combat, which had previously been dominated by boarding action. This resulted in ships carrying fewer soldiers and more mariners who were trained as gunners. English gun crews had a reputation for being among the best in Europe.