Tony Robinson's TV programme is called The Worst Jobs in the World and featured the dyer, boiling up crushed woad leaves to make a brilliant blue dye. Smells awful apparently.

HMS Victory does indeed have wooden shot racks on all the gundecks but I suspect they've been put there for effect. It doesn't take a particularly rough sea to get the ship pitching and/or rolling and the damage to feet and bulwarks would have been severe. Shot was stored in the shot locker in the hold where it would be used as ballast. Captains who cared about the sailing performance of their ships (Lord Cochrane, the model for Hornblower, for one) used to get their ships' companies to redistribute the shot to change the trim of the ship. Jack Aubrey did this too, so it must be true ;-)

Larboard originated as 'ladeboard' - the side of the ship (board) over which it was laden and unladen. It had to be done on that side coz on the other - steerboard - side was the steering oar which would've been damaged if ground against the jetty. (Of course, it was on that side coz most of the steersmen were right handed). The term 'Larboard' was replaced by 'Port' in the nineteenth century to avoid occasional confusion with 'starboard'.

I agree with Shanghaiceltic's views on the cat. The prisoner used to have to make his own from a length of rope. Thieves were further punished by having the tails knotted so they'd bite into the flesh more effectively. No-one wanted a thief on board.

Steve