Scurvy at Sea: Solving a Mystery

By Katie Rowe, Registered Dietitian & Ventura Yacht Club Historian

Painting depicting sailors with scurvy being treated with lemons

Recently I explored a topic that features three realms of historical interest to me: sailing, science and nutrition. In my background and study of nutrition, the phenomenon of scurvy and its cure in nautical history is the most elegant example of how early scientific experimentation led to a simple, food-based solution to a deadly problem affecting early mariners.

Ocean voyages during the Age of Sail were dangerous. Charts could be inaccurate, navigational aids were imprecise, and severe weather could appear at any time. On top of that, sailors were often afflicted with the mysterious disease scurvy, that appeared a few months into a voyage. Scurvy degenerates the body's connective tissue, leading to bleeding gums, wobbly teeth, rot-reeking breath, lethargy, physical weakness, and the opening of old wounds, including once-healed broken bones. Untreated, scurvy leads to a slow, agonizing death. On a lengthy voyage, half the crew could be lost due to scurvy. Historians have estimated that the disease killed more than two million sailors between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Richard Dana, author of the memoir “Two Years Before the Mast,” wrote about the effects of scurvy aboard the brig Alert. Dana was crew during its voyage back to Boston from California with a hull full of cattle hides. In mid-1836, after several months at sea, several sailors began to show symptoms of “the scurvy.” As they sailed past Bermuda, the Alert came across another ship whose crew provided a portion of fresh provisions. Here are excerpts describing the encounter:

“One man had it so badly as to be disabled and off duty, and the English lad, Ben, was in a dreadful state, and was daily growing worse. His legs swelled and pained him so that he could not walk; his flesh lost its elasticity, so that if pressed in it would not return to its state; his gums swelled until he could not open his mouth.”

“The chief use … of the fresh provisions was for the men with the scurvy. One of them was able to eat, and he soon brought himself to, by gnawing upon raw potatoes and onions. But the other, by this time, was hardly able to open his mouth, and the cook took the potatoes raw, pounded them in a mortar, and gave him the juice to drink. In ten days time… so rapid was his recovery that, from lying helpless and almost hopeless in his berth, he was at the mast-head, furling a royal.”

Sailors had long known that eating fresh foods could ward off scurvy, but in the medical realm, there were only theories about its actual cause. In the mid-1800’s, medical beliefs and practices were rooted in 2000-year-old concepts from the time of Hippocrates. Of course, now we know that a lack of dietary vitamin C (ascorbic acid) causes scurvy, but the discovery of vitamins was not made until the early 1900’s. Before then, nutritional deficiencies were indistinguishable from other ailments.

In the mid 1700’s, British Royal Navy surgeon James Lind set out to find a cure for scurvy. He reviewed existing literature and noted several clues that pointed towards diet, one of which was the dramatic improvement among ailing sailors after being provided with fresh foods. Lind carried out what has since been recognized as the first randomized clinical trial, on board the Royal Navy ship Salisbury in 1747. Here is an excerpt about that endeavor from the 2004 book Scurvy by Stephen R. Bown:

“After two months at sea, scurvy began to appear among the crew. When Lind had 12 cases to treat, he divided them into pairs. All the men received the same care, food, and drink, plus one of six possible treatments. The first pair was given cider; the next, elixir vitriol (dilute sulfuric acid); another was given vinegar; the fourth, seawater; the fifth, a paste of plant extracts; and the final, two oranges and a lemon each day. The result of the trial was conclusive: Only the pair given citrus fruit made a rapid, immediate recovery.”

By 1795, an ounce of lemon juice per day was given to every sailor serving in the Royal Navy, nearly eliminating scurvy amongst its crews. However, sourcing lemon juice became problematic in 1804 when Britain was at war with Spain, its primary supplier. The navy switched to lime juice, which could be obtained from the Caribbean.

The term “lime-juicer” emerged as a reference to British sailors after lime juice became routinely stocked on vessels and issued to the crew daily. The term gradually became “limeys,” and described any British person, losing any connection with the sea. In the early to mid-1900’s, the term evolved into a derogatory reference to English emigrants arriving in America, South Africa and Australia. The term has dissipated, along with the scourge of scurvy, once so common among seafarers.

To learn more about a sailors life at sea and plan your next trip to the Channel Islands Maritime Museum, please click here. Come Explore!

Sources:

1. Finding the Cure for Scurvy, by Philip K. Allan, from the U.S. Naval Institute, February 2021

2. Scurvy: How a Surgeon, a Mariner, and a Gentleman Solved the Greatest Medical Mystery of the Age of Sail by Stephen R. Bown, 2004

3. TheVintageNews.com website

4. Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana Jr., Heritage Press edition, 1941