What is incredible is that virtually all the seamen in the RN were either "impressed men" (captured ashore by a roving band of sailors under the command of a midshipman or junior lieutenant, brought to the ship and told that this was his home for several years), convicts given the choice of prison or joining the army or navy, and desperate, starving men who turned to the Navy as the only means of survival.
Turning this band of misfits into the best crews on the seas was due to rigid discipline and constant training. Punishments included flogging for the slightest insubordination. The order would go out "all hands to the quarter deck to witness flogging." The Master-at-Arms (the senior of a team of non-seamen responsible for discipline) or a senior crewman would administer the lashing; if he tried to go lightly the order from the captain would be "lay on with a will or you'll change places with him." There was keel-hauling (being pulled by rope from one side of the ship, under the keel [itself festooned with limpets and barnacles] and up the other side), or - for the most serious crimes, like desertion or striking an officer - "flogging round the fleet" (being given maybe 20 lashes on one ship, rowed over to the next for it to be repeated, etc.) which few survived.
Add to this life below decks in cramped quarters (the average height to deckhead - ceiling to landlubbers - was about 5'6"), a diet of salt pork and biscuits - apples, pears, green vegetables and potatoes were loaded before sailing, but none would survive weeks at sea, and bullying, especially by older midshipmen who had not advanced in rank because of constantly failing examinations.
They did, however, suffer much less from scurvy - see later.
One cohesive factor that made them the best crews in the world was loyalty and patriotism. They were constantly told that they were all that stood between their homeland and the French, Spaniards, Danes and Dutch.
Trivia:
(stop me if you've heard this before.) Do you know the origin of "son of a gun"? It's used as a compliment or friendly greeting today, but in the past was an insult. Some captains allowed a few wives and even prostitutes to go on voyages with the crews, probably to reduce homosexuality, which was regarded as destructive to discipline and fighting spirit, and homosexual rape. Not infrequently the result was a pregnancy. The baby would be born on the gun deck, hence the name.
How about tottering? Some sailors illegally stored their daily tot of rum in some container, and then had a blast by drinking it all at once, resulting in being unsteady on their feet.
Grog? When Admiral Vernon took over the fleet, one of his first rules was that the daily tot had to be diluted 2:1 water to rum, possibly to reduce the frequency of the above. Vernon was known as "Old Grog," due to the cape of grogram he wore, and the pissed-off sailors used the term for the diluted drink.
The "Nelson [or Nelsonian] Touch." During the Battle of Copenhagen (1801) Adm. Nelson disagreed with the less adventurous tactics of his superior, Adm. Sir Hyde Parker. His squadron was closer to the Danish fleet and had a better view of an opportunity to defeat it. When his signalman, Foley, said that they had received a flag signal from Parker to withdraw, Nelson put his telescope to the eye that he had lost in a previous battle and said "Hmm. You know, Foley, I have only one eye, and I have the right to be blind sometimes. I see no such signal," and ordered an attack, managing to cross the enemy fleet's T and defeat them. This added the word "Nelsonian" and the phrase "turning a blind eye" - i.e. pretending not to have received an order - to the English language.
Crossing the T. Where one fleet manoeuvers to pass in line ahead across the van (head) of the enemy fleet, allowing them to fire a series of broadsides with little or no return fire.
Holding the Wind Gauge. This doesn't mean using an anemometer. A ship, or fleet, upwind of another, has the choice of attacking or holding off, while the ship or fleet on the lee (downwind) can only stay put or retreat. Generally, crossing the T requires holding the wind gauge.
Limeys. The most debilitating disease to affect crews on long voyages was scurvy, a disease caused by lack of vitamin C, itself due to the lack of vegetables or fruit in their diet. In some cases, one third or more of the crew would be stricken, and many would die.
Nobody knew anything about vitamins before the late 19th century, of course, but it was discovered that ships stationed in the West Indies almost never had problems with the disease. An Admiralty inquiry found that the crews were in the habit of flavoring their daily grog with the juice of limes, which were indiginous to the islands, and taking kegs of the stuff on voyages. The Admiralty ordered lime juice to be distributed throughout the fleet in all parts of the world, and a mandatory dose each day. When Americans heard about this pansy way of drinking spirits, they evolved the epithet Limeys to describe RN crews.
Rigid discipline, intense training, patriotism and lime juice. Rule Britannia for 300 years.