For only $3,580, you can own one of the oldest known biscuits in the world at a Dix Noonan Webb’s auction. According to the Daily Express, the 212-year-old biscuit once belonged to Thomas Fletcher, a gunner on the HMS Defence from 1804 to 1807. Hardened biscuits, also known as hardtack, were part of naval rations, and it kept many British sailors’ bellies full as they fought against the French and Spanish during the War of the Third Coalition.
Sailors needed to add water to the biscuit in order to chew it, and sometimes, the biscuits would get infested, and sailors would find themselves chewing on maggots. But somehow, Fletcher’s five-inch-wide hardtack survived over two centuries after Fletcher made it back to England. It has blackened though, which Dix Noonan Webb auctioneer Oliver Pepys said is likely due to aging or carbonization. Fletcher’s descendants kept the hardtack for generations, but then a private collector bought it at a 2005 Sotheby’s public auction.
Now, 13 years later, the collector has decided to put it back on the market. The auction is set for May 9, 2018, so get your checkbook ready if you want to own some naval history.
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