Here's another fascinating lıttle nugget of nautical history.
In 1845, the famed Captain Sir John Franklin, 127 men, and a very interesting list of provisions embarked on a mission to discover a Northwest Passage and never returned. Ice-locked with lead cans and lacking enough food for the strenous task of surviving an arctic winter, the crew died of starvation, lead poisoning, and scurvey.
PBS provides this awesome (if admittedly somewhat voyeuristic) look into the plannıng that went into the packing of provisions brought along on this trip.