Tag: sailors
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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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Pig-tail probe
Zeynel KarciogluCharlottesville, Virginia, United States I read with great interest Dr. Stanley Gutiontov’s article entitled “Pig man: pigs in medicine from Galen to transgenic xenotransplantation” in Hektoen International, and it reminded me of an amusing “pig-related” experience I had years ago. The twisted tobacco leaves that sailors smoked in the 1700s resembled the curly tail…