Provisioning ships in the West Indies was the responsibility of the Victualling Board. Composed of seven members, and subordinate to the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, the Board rarely met with more than three or four members present. It was charged with ensuring that supplies were available at the places where they were needed, and with providing the necessary storage space for them. How these duties were discharged varied. In the Caribbean two methods of victualling were employed. In the early years of the war, the Board contracted with a private firm, Messrs. Mason and Simpson of London, to provide the supplies required at Jamaica. Later, the scale of operations became so great, that the Commissioners for Victualling undertook the task themselves. At the Leeward Islands private contractors were used throughout the war.

The Victualling Office also undertook to supply those troops that were sent out to Jamaica to take part in combined operations. For the first year this task was discharged by contract, but thereafter the Board undertook the supply itself, the cost being met by the War Office. The Board was also responsible for hiring ships to carry stores to Jamaica and for providing suitable storage space.

Theoretically, provisioning the ships in the West Indies was not difficult. The Board knew, from the Admiralty, the number of seamen serving there and it knew how much was needed to feed each man, as this was laid down on a fixed scale of specified goods as represented in Table 13.