Uwe, is there any particular reason why the hammocks were kept here ?.
Yes.... I know two or three reasons, but maybe there were others in addition:
1) storage room for the hammocks at the gundecks was limited, especially during ready for action. You have to understand, that every seaman had minimum one personal hammock. Somewhere I was reading also, that everybody had two (I think in later periods)
No. 14 of 74 (PAJ1976 - PAJ2049) A drawing of a sailor signed 'AVprGB' (to the life by Gabriel Bray). This work probably shows a seaman bringing his hammock up to air from below on the 'Pallas' early in Bray's voyage to Africa, even though there is no trace of the ship shown. The hammock is clearly ticketted 'CD No. 4' referring to the man's place and number in the ship (see also PAJ1992), for which Bray may have had particular responsibility.
and with the number of seamen and other military people on such a ship, we are easily talking about more than 1.000 hammocks on a warship.
Scale: Graduated Bar Scale. A plan showing the hammock layout with colour coding on the lower deck of 'Bedford' (1775), a 70 gun Third Rate, two decker. It is thought that the hammocks indicated in blue represent the sailors; those in red, the marines
2) after some days under deck, they had to bring the hammocks to air - because of smell etc. -> called "airing"
No. 17 of 74 (PAJ1976 - PAJ2049) A drawing of a sailmaker signed 'AVprGB' (to the life by Gabriel Bray). Men were issued with hammocks which bore a number indicating their place in the ship -
quite literally since it was the space where the hammock would be slung and returned after airing (see PAJ1989) or being packed into the gunwale hammock nettings on deck where they were put in battle, as protecton from small-arms fire. The head of the capstan indicates this is an upper-deck scene. The drawing also shows the working dress of a sailmaker - who was a specific warrant officer - and (presumably) his mate. This is one of 73 drawings by Bray (plus one signed 'NF 1782') preserved in a 19th-century album. They have now been separately remounted. Bray (1750-1823), was second lieutenant of the 44-gun ‘Pallas’ under Captain the Hon. William Cornwallis (1744-1819) – later a well-known admiral - on two voyages (1774-77) to report on British interests in West Africa, including the slave trade. The dated drawings refer only to the first of these, from December 1774 to September 1775, though a few may be from the second. Others comprise country views, some of Deal, Kent (where Bray may have come from), and others of social-history interest
3) Protection from splinters and small arms fire during battle or action
4) Somewhere is was also reading that they could help seaman not to drown.....usually they were not able to swimm, The hammocks were floating 30 to 60 minutes,
Scale: unknown. A full hull model of the ‘Phoebe’ (1795), a 36-gun frigate. The model is decked, equipped and rigged. This model represents the new, large types of frigate which were built in large numbers in the 1790s.It is fully rigged and shows the seamen’s hammocks stowed around the decks. It also shows the Nelson chequer, or black and white painting of the hull. This style was not common until about 1815, which may date the model to this time. The ‘Phoebe’ was built on the Thames in Dudman’s yard at Deptford. It served off the Irish coast in 1796–1800 and captured many enemy ships. In 1805 it was present at the Battle of Trafalgar captained by Thomas Bladen Capel, one of Nelson’s original ‘band of brothers’. It became a depot ship at Plymouth in 1822 and was finally broken up in 1840