Page 28 - The Lost Ways

- By James Walton -

“An army marches on its stomach.”

– Napoleon Bonaparte

Though it may have been fire that brought humans out of the darkness and into

the light, just as powerful was the advent of agriculture that allowed us to build
communities and stop running and gunning for survival.

Buried in the heap of incredible technologies that catapulted our race to the very moon
itself lies an often neglected staple. It was an invention that would have made sea
exploration nearly impossible. It was a food that fed soldiers at war for thousands of

years. I’m talking about hardtacks.

Not familiar with the name? Well, it goes by many others as well. The fact of the matter
is, this staple of the seafaring peoples of old and pioneers alike has been called cabin
bread, pilot bread, sea biscuit, sea bread, ship’s biscuit, and, as we will discuss now,
hardtack.

The journey across the Atlantic was a harsh one that required a food source that could
last the long journey. Hardtack offered a carbohydrate energy source that was simply void
of moisture. This dried mixture of flour and water was often baked as many as four times
to ensure it could be stored for years, if needed, without spoiling.

That said, the hardtacks were not bullet proof. There are stories of sailors opening barrels
of hardtack only to find armies of beetles waiting inside and their food storage for the

voyage squandered. But these stories were very uncommon. At Wentworth Museum in
Pensacola, Florida, you can find a still-edible hardtack from the U.S. Civil War labeled
1862.

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