Tag: Richard de Grijs
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The forgotten menace of long naval patrols
Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia Heavy manual labor was part and parcel of the daily routine on eighteenth-century sailing ships. Although simple mechanical aids such as capstans (winches), blocks, and pulleys reduced some of the burden, shipboard life relied largely on enormous physical strain and exertion. Lifting heavy casks, or tubs of seawater for washing the…
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The grim horrors of the orlop deck
Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia The often awe-inspiring works of art immortalizing historic naval battles usually belie the harsh reality of war. Amidst clouds of billowing, black smoke and the deafening roar of cannon fire, sailors faced the real danger of life-threatening injuries. Injured sailors were carried, dragged, or stretchered to the surgeon’s “cockpit,” a dimly…
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“Filth so foul and stench so offensive as not to be imagined”
Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia … during the voyage there is on board these ships terrible misery, stench, fumes, horror, vomiting, many kinds of sea-sickness, fever, dysentery, headache, heat, constipation, boils, scurvy, cancer, mouth-rot, and the like, all of which come from old and sharply salted food and meat, also from very bad and foul water,…
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Of vermicide and vermifuge: A history of intestinal parasites at sea
Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia When the UK’s National Archives launched the Surgeons at Sea project,1 many media outlets focused on one outlandish claim from the curators’ summary of highlights. In June 1825, twelve-year-old Ellen McCarthy was on board the Elizabeth from Cork (Ireland) to Quebec (Canada) when the ship’s surgeon reported that she Complained yesterday…
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The ships’ surgeons’ toxic toolkit
Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia During the “Age of Sail,” months-long voyages gave rise to unique health concerns.1,2 Moreover, ships’ surgeons frequently encountered diseases brought upon uninhibited sailors through their own “adventurous” behavior. Following their arrival at far-flung ports, sailors often returned from shore visits with more than they bargained for, including sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis.…
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Temporary insanity in tropical waters
Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia So, by a calenture misled, The mariner with rapture sees, On the smooth ocean’s azure bed, Enamell’d fields and verdant trees: With eager haste he longs to rove In that fantastick scene, and thinks It must be some enchanted grove; And in he leaps, and down he sinks.1 It was the…
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“All hands to dance and skylark!” – Shipboard dancing in the British Navy
Richard de GrijsSydney, Australia “We were all hearty seamen, no cold did we fear;And we have from all sickness entirely kept clear;Thanks be to the Captain he has proved so good;Amongst all the Islands to give us fresh food.”1,2– William Perry, surgeon’s mate on H.M.S. Resolution, 1775 Lieutenant James Cook (1728–1779) is known as a…
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Christopher Wren and blood circulation
Richard de GrijsSydney, AustraliaDaniel VuillerminBeijing, China “A young man of marvellous gifts who, when not yet sixteen years of age, advanced astronomy, gnomonics, statics, and mechanics by his distinguished discoveries, and from then on continues to advance these sciences. And truly he is the kind of man from whom I can shortly expect great things.”…
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Longitudinal lunacy: Science and madness in the eighteenth century
Richard de GrijsSydney, AustraliaDaniel VuillerminBeijing, China “A couple of young Non conformist preachers from Worksop in the North of Derbyshire came thither to have my approbation of some Method they had to propose for finding the Longitude at sea, one I shall tell you because it will make you laugh abundantly.”1 John Flamsteed, Britain’s first…