Observations on the Diseases of Seamen. Blane Gilbert
stimulated by the exigency of the occasion, banished all hesitation and timidity. The rough weather, and contrary winds, continued through the variable latitudes; but having met with fresh blowing trade winds, common at that season, we had the good fortune to get safe to Barbadoes with the whole squadron on the 19th of February.
All the twelve ships7 of this reinforcement had been on service for a considerable length of time since they had been last commissioned, except the Anson, a new ship, which had never before been at sea, and the Fame and Yarmouth, which had lately undergone a thorough repair, since which time they had been only for a few weeks at sea in the Channel before they were ordered on this expedition.
The only ship that was sickly when we left England was the Fame, on board of which some pressed men, with the infection about them, had been received from the Conquestadore guardship; and the fever which broke out in Plymouth Sound, where I was first sent for to visit that ship, was probably owing to the infection which these men brought with them. The other ships were, upon the whole, healthy; for it appeared by the weekly accounts delivered to the Admiral, that the mortality, including even that of the Fame, for the four weeks before we sailed, had been only one in thirteen hundred, and that there had been about one in twenty-nine on the sick list.
An opportunity offered on this occasion of comparing the health of ships of war in England with that in the West Indies. The health of the fleet in general at home was at this time about the proportion above mentioned; but it is to be remarked, that it was healthier then than in the former part of the war.
Plymouth hospital, which is calculated for twelve hundred men, was not half full; and there were not at this time more than six hundred men at that of Haslar, which is calculated to contain two thousand; but the latter was generally full during the first two or three years of the war, from the great fleets that put into Portsmouth. At one time part of the sick were even obliged to be accommodated with tents in the neighbourhood of the hospital, for want of room. But towards the end of the year 1781 the infectious fever, which constitutes a great part of the sickness in the European seas, was almost extirpated, and in a cruise of five weeks in the north part of the Bay of Biscay, under Admiral Darby, in September and October of this year, only six men were buried in that time from twenty-eight ships of the line.
This was chiefly owing, as I apprehend, to the length of time which the war had continued, in consequence of which the men of the respective ship’s companies had been accustomed to each other, and habituated to the mode of life peculiar to a man of war, regulating themselves according to certain rules of good order and cleanliness. The causes of the fever above mentioned, as shall be more fully illustrated hereafter, are chiefly connected with the circumstances occurring in the beginning of a war, when men of all descriptions are mixed, without proper precautions being taken to guard against the infection imported from jails or guardships. The sickness in the French fleet was still greater in the beginning of the war than in the British; and this has been the case in all the wars of this century. In the fleet commanded by the Comte d’Orvilliers, in 1779, the sickness was so great as to disable many of the ships from service, and great numbers of men were landed at Brest, with a fever so malignant as to infect the inhabitants of the town and country adjacent. I believe, besides, that the general health prevailing at this time in the fleet in England, was, in part, owing to the sour crout and melasses, which were now supplied more amply than had ever been done before. The entire exemption from scurvy in particular is to be ascribed to these improvements in diet.
There is a tendency in acute diseases to wear themselves out, both in individuals that labour under them, and when the infection is introduced into a community. Unless there was such a vis medicatrix, there could be no end to the fatality of these distempers; for the infectious matter would go on multiplying itself without end, and would necessarily destroy every person who might be actually attacked, and would infect every person who might be exposed to it. But animal nature is so constituted, that this poison, after exciting a certain set of motions in the body, loses its effect, and recovery takes place; and those who happen not to be infected at first, become in some measure callous to its impression, by being habitually exposed to it. There is, therefore, a natural proneness to recovery, as well with regard to that indisposition which takes place among a set of men living together, as with regard to a single individual who actually labours under the disease. Thus the most prevailing period of sickness is when men are new to their situation and to each other, so that time of itself may prove the means of prevention as well as of cure.
This consideration, however, ought not to supersede any part of our attention with regard to the scurvy, which does not become spontaneously extinct like acute diseases.
During the three first weeks of this passage from England to the West Indies, there was wet and boisterous weather, but it had very little effect in augmenting sickness; and though it not only subjected the men to fatigue, cold, and damp, but prevented the ships from opening their lower-deck ports till the 2d of February, between the 31st and 32d degree of latitude, thereby producing close air and moisture where the men sleep, yet, in the whole squadron, from its leaving England till this time, there were only seven deaths, four of which were in the Fame.
The only sea epidemic that made its appearance was the infectious ship fever, which, in many cases, was attended with pleuritic, rheumatic, and other inflammatory symptoms, owing to the cold and wet, to which the men were exposed in the variable latitudes. The warm, dry, fresh breezes which we had during the remainder of the passage, were probably what prevented any bad consequences from the former hardships, for there died only four men from the above-mentioned date till we arrived at Barbadoes; and it appeared by the Admiral’s weekly account, that the proportion of the sick neither increased nor diminished from the time we got into a warm climate and fine weather till our arrival on the 19th of February.
This squadron left England with several advantages in point of victualling, which no ships had before enjoyed. They were amply supplied with sour crout and melasses; they had all more or less wine, of an excellent quality; and the Formidable had an entire supply of it, in place of spirits, of which none was put on board. This slip had hitherto, and did for some months afterwards, enjoy an extraordinary, perhaps an unparallelled, degree of health. What farther contributed to the health of this ship was, that she had been long in commission, and most of the recruits with which the crew had been completed were men turned over from other ships. There was also extraordinary medical attention paid, particularly in watching the first beginnings of complaints.
Upon the arrival of the squadron at Barbadoes, it was found, that, the two hostile fleets having returned from North America in the beginning of December, the campaign had opened with the siege of St. Christopher’s, which had been invested by twenty-eight ships of the line, and a considerable army. Our fleet, under Lord Hood, having attempted, with great enterprise and skill, but without success, to relieve it, Lord Rodney made haste to join them with the reinforcement he had brought from England. He remained at anchor at Barbadoes only one night, and in a few days came off Antigua, where he was informed of the surrender of St. Christopher’s; and here, on the 25th of February, he was joined by the rest of the fleet in their return to windward.
CHAP. II
Account of the Health of the Fleet from the Junction of the Squadron from England, till the general Rendezvous at St. Lucia in the Beginning of April. – The Fleet found on the Station very healthy – Health of the Ships from the American Station – Health of the Ships from England compared with that of the Ships found on the Station – Small-pox prevalent – Instance of the remarkable Efficacy of Lemon Juice in curing the Scurvy – Additional Reinforcement from England – Watering Duty dangerous and unhealthy – The most healthy Ships those that had been longest in the Climate – List of the Numbers taken ill of each Complaint in March – Inflammation of the Liver not common in the West Indies.
The fleet which was found in the West Indies consisted of all the sixteen that went from thence to America in August, 1781, (except the Terrible, which had been lost) together with six ships of the line8 from the American station, the St. Albans, which arrived from England in November, and the Russel, which had remained in the West Indies during the hurricane months. They were all extremely healthy, having only one man in twenty-eight on
They were the Formidable and Namur, of 90 guns; the Arrogant, Conqueror, Marlborough, Hercules, and Fame, of 74 guns; the Yarmouth, Repulse, Prothée, Anson, and Nonsuch, of 64 guns.
These were the Prince George, of 90; the Bedford, Canada, and Royal Oak, of 74; the America and Prudent, of 64 guns.