10. Bligh calculated the consumption of provisions to last the men eight weeks
Bligh was uncertain where the settlement of Coupang was located on the island of Timor, or even whether it was still there. Accordingly, he planned to use the available provisions at a rate which would give them eight weeks before they were exhausted. Though he intimated to the men they would likely find deserted islands once, inside the Great Barrier Reef, where they could re-provision somewhat, he wasn’t sure, and the possibility did not affect his rationing. To make sure of the measurements allotted at each meal he fashioned a scale-out of coconut shells, with a musket ball of known weight to serve as a reference. He measured the men’s daily bread with the device.
The bread with which the launch was supplied was not soft bread. It was ships biscuit, the mainstay of navies and merchant ships around the world. It was hard, dense, with the texture of crackers, though much tougher to bite through. Often it could only be ingested after soaking in liquid. Some of the men in the launch did just that, soaking their small morsel in their allotment of water before consuming both. Others gnawed at it as they had aboard ship. The salt pork was usually just as tough to chew. Bligh issued the salt pork sparingly, both because it was in short supply and because heavily salted meat added to the distress of constant thirst, with little advantage from the minimal increase in protein.