[eli5] What are the duties on board a ship while in port during the 17th/18th century?
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In the 17th and 18th centuries, when ships were in port, sailors had lots to do! They loaded and unloaded cargo, fixed anything that was broken, stocked up on supplies like food and water, scrubbed the ship clean, and got some well-deserved rest. It was a busy time, making sure the ship was ready for its next journey across the seas!
Since ships were mostly made out of wood and used sails it was a lot of maintenance work primarily. From repairing and/or replacing rigging to fixing minor damages to emptying out cargo and provisions. Replenishing the latter was a common task as well.
If you want to learn about it and do it in a fun way I suggest reading the [series of books](https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/patrick-obrian/) from Patrick O’ Brian featuring Capt Aubrey and Doc Maturin. The author writes very accurately about a lot of the details of the day to day work and events that were common in those days, as he was both a navy man himself but also had access to archives to keep his books very detailed about this.
If there was a beach on which the ship could be pulled out of the water, scraping the hull to remove barnacles, algae etc. (“biofouling”) was an important task to improve the performance of the ship when it was underway.
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