"On August 25th the Spray sailed from Gibraltar".
Sept 6th "the bill of fare consisted mostly of flying fish, hot biscuits and butter, potatoes, coffee and cream..."
Im wondering how he managed the butter and cream - maybe it was in powdered form! In any case it's the second time around for me with this book and enjoying it immensely. It must be an inspiration to many towards getting onto the water.

In 1800 and something, and from Gibraltar?

Maybe he made it fresh every day from the goat which ate his chart.

But more realistically, I have read that butter or cheese can be kept under (olive) oil in a jar, so long as the air doesn't get to it.
On my boat, I use vegetable oil for "buttering" sandwiches, toast and for general frying or cooking. That way I don't need a fridge, and it will be on board for months.
If I have powdered milk, then I could live without cream for a voyage. The canning process was available in his day, and beforehand. In the Australian gold rush days we had beef cans imported from France called (forgive the spelling guess) boulli-boeuf, which was later mangled to "billy". Sailors have managed for a few thousand years without canned products or fresh milk and cream.

Slocum's voyage began in 1895 according to Wikipedia.

Sculling up the Yarrow river in Melbourne Australi.

In answer to your question.................No. Slocum predated fridges.

nswsailor said..
Today I have margarine on board and as its absolutely full of preservatives it just sits in the food cupboard. NO FRIG!

Longest I've had a container was over 6 months

AN interesting experiment with margarine, leave it outside with the lid off and no animal will go near it - not even the ants or bugs!

All@Sea said..

Subsonic said..

sailorsilas said..
In 1800 and something, and from Gibraltar?

Possibly


Franklins' expedition to find the north west passage had tinned food aboard, and that was around 50yrs before. Quite possible they were tinning a variety of food by Slocums departure date.

I read or saw somewhere that it may've been the tinned food that killed the crew as a result of lead poisoning (not lack of food), I think the last of the ships logs described madness among the crew that can be attributed to lead.

Yep. They did autopsies on the very well preserved bodies of the crewmen and found they had lead poisoning. (most likely) from the lead they used to seal the cans with.

"Frozen in time" is another interesting read. Its not the story of the Franklin expedition though. More about what they think happened, and the autopsy of the bodies.