I tell you, I worked near Portsmouth, England for about 1/2-a year and the historic navy yard was my favorite place. That Victory tour was the BEST of any ship I've ever been on.
The pictures show the gun deck below the open air gun deck. 286 men lived, ate, worked, and slept on that deck. The men would sneak ladies on board, only to be found out whilst out to sea. She'd have a baby, no one knew who the Dad was, so that's where the term "Son of a Gun" came from.
Times were tough in the 1700s,n never knowing where your next meal came from. Serving in the Royal Navy would guarantee you 3 meals a day, though many times the food would be spoiled with bowevills (sp?) and other vermin. The plates were square, called a trencher, hence the term "3 'square' meals a day".
The deck below the bottom-most gundeck is the orlop deck, which is derived from Danish or Swedish to mean the overlap deck. The heightof this deck was driven by the heights of the decks above and the hold storage below and most times it was barely 5' tall. This is also where the wounded would be taken.
To date, it remains THE most fascinating historical tour I have ever taken!