send comments by e-mail to: Dr Sally-Anne Coupar
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  Sailors then faced many more dangers on such long voyages than the obvious ones like storms, running aground, hitting a reef, inhospitable natives, or even getting lost. Because of the extreme length of the Pacific voyages fully one third of the crew was expected to die during the voyage. This was not only because of any of the dangers mentioned above, although certainly some would be lost to them, but more often due to simple malnutrition. In those times it was impossible to keep food fresh for extended periods of time, and on long voyages where there would be few oppurtunities for the ship to put in to shore for fresh supplies the problem became even more serious, with many members of the crew coming down with an illness known as scurvy. This is caused by a vitamin deficiency. As can be seen in the picture below, conditions on ship for the crew were not exactly ideal. In the 18th Century scurvy was a serious problem, and one that very few people had been able to prevent with any degree of success.  Crew living quarters on board HM Bark Endeavour (replica). |
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