Gundeck

Have a look around the Gun Deck now. Forward you'll find the main dining area on the modern ship as well as the "gun table" displaying the original guns. From here you can also go below to the berthing cabins and forward to the men's and women's heads. Unfortunately, we've got the bulk of our running rigging and sails stowed here for winter so you can't really move around here right now. Come back in the Spring to have a better look.

You can, however, visit the Galley and Galley enclosure and see where the meals are prepared. This is were crewmembers warm themselves with a cup of coffee or hot cocoa before going on deck at night for their watch.

The Gun Deck was the heart of the H.M.S. Rose since her whole reason for existence was to act as a platform for guns. In battle a vast majority of the men aboard worked on the gun deck and a great deal of shipboard life took place there.

The section of the gun deck on which the guns are mounted (what we refer to aboard today's Rose as the "gun table" or "platform deck") is a good representation of what the entire deck looked like. The gun deck had about 5'0" headroom (not enough for a man to stand) and was completely open from the bow to the bulkhead of the Great Cabin aft. Both sides of the ship were lined with guns, with the tools for the guns hanging above and the mess tables where the men ate mounted between them. In the very bow was the manger where the livestock were housed. Aft of the manger (approximately where the ladder for the bell hatch is located) was the caboose, a huge brick oven for cooking. Another capstan was mounted on the gun deck directly below the one on the weather deck. These and the guns comprised all of the major features of this deck.

All of the common seamen ate at the mess tables slung between the guns. The crew was divided into "messes" of six to eight men each who remained together in the same mess for the duration of their time aboard the ship. One of the mess would be elected as "cook" for a week at a time. The "cook" was responsible for reporting to the ship's cook for his mess's food ration, placing the food in a net bag and giving it to the ship's cook to be boiled in cauldrons in the caboose. Each mess was responsible for the cleanliness of their area.

Before we finish the tour here on the gundeck, I know a lot of people ask about the accommodations aboard the ship for trainees. On the gundeck, there is clearly a lot of room but a noticeable absence of hammocks. True enough, we don't sling hammocks anymore (the Coast Guard forbids it) but we do have bunks with futon mattresses in sleeping cabins below.

Have a look down either the A Cabin or B Cabin companionways leading down to what would have been the hold on the original ship. On the modern Rose, there are 12 bunks in each cabin plus shelve space for personal belongings. Shipboard living space is tight but comfortable. Bunks have curtains for privacy and individual overhead reading lamps so you can study your manual before nodding off at the end of a watch.

That's it for the main tour. We thought you might want to hear a bit more about shipboard life on the original H.M.S. Rose, though. And some of you might also be interested in hearing more about the ship's guns, how they were worked, and what it was like below during a battle.