So many of the ingredients are hella expensive these days. Back in the Sixteenth through early Nineteenth centuries cod was so cheap it was used to fuel plantation agriculture. Now it's close to $15/pound thanks to hundreds of years of overfishing. Turtle was a staple in old Caribbean recipes. There were so many mussels and other shellfish that beds were the size of small islands and listed as navigation hazards. It's estimated that they filtered the waters of Chesapeake Bay every three days or so :iohmy:

The common ingredients that are still cheap are often nasty.

I've made hardtack and ship's biscuit to a couple old recipes. The only thing you can say for it is that it keeps well if you keep it dry. And it makes a good dog biscuit.

Sauerkraut is sauerkraut. Grog is grog. Bully beef is dried beef.

Beyond that it's tough. And when you come right down to it shipboard food places a premium on compact, safe storage and preservation by drying. Everything else is secondary at best. To this day a good cook can make or break a merchant ship. When my wife and her parents travelled from Tanzania to Europe and back to America they took freighters. Even the Captain tread lightly in the galley and treated the Cook with polite deference when in his domain.