Mission

That is an article unto itself. It would take me several days to sort and sift through all the data I have. I did recently read something that recommended the old internal issue standbys: purges, bleedings and a regulated diet. I seem to recall the author (can't remember which one) being quite guarded about using bleeding, though. Curiously, purging seems the odder suggestion to me in a flux (diarrhea), but it's what I recall. Perhaps I'll look at it for this month's article. I need something short because I'm putting together some link pages that are taking a lot more work than I expected them to.

I would be very much surprised if regular cleaning a naval vessel (indeed, any vessel) wasn't fairly consistent. How good a job they did might be open to discussion. This is from the transcript of a lecture delivered by Sir Cecil Wakely at the Royal College of Surgeons in England on 14 November, 1957 titled Surgeons and the Navy: "In 1730 there was published by His Majesty's command, a List of Regulations and Instructions relating to Service at Sea. The reason for this document is stated in the Preface as follows: " Whereas the Commissioners for executing the Office of Lord High Admiral of Great Britain, Ireland, etc. did on the 23rd of last month represent to His Majesty at this Board that the Orders and Instructions which have from time to time been issued for the better Government of the Navy have been so imperfect, and, through length of Time, become so perplexed, that the Officers of H.M. Navy have been liable to fall into Mistakes and Omissions in the Execution of their Duty. And that for the preventing any Doubts or Difficulties of this Nature for the future, they have collected into a Book, the several Rules and Orders now in Force in the Navy, and made such Additions and Alterations thereto, as they thought necessary for that Purpose; and have reduced the whole into distinct Chapters and digested the same under proper Heads, so that all the Officers of H.M. Ships may, at one View, be duly and sufficiently apprized of the Duty of their Respective Posts." (Wakely) Now that by no means comes out and says 'ships were filthy', it merely suggests at some ships being better at following regulations than others. So it's just a hint of what might have been and we're back to 'what if?' and 'suppose'n.' I have the distinct impression that the Spanish and French were notoriously bad at keeping their ships clean, although it comes mainly from the following quote, the original sources of which I have not bothered to track down as they are later period and thus only tangential to my research. This is from Kevin Brown's fascinating book, Poxed and Scurvied: The Story of Sickness and Health at Sea, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 2011: "British naval surgeons were often horrified when they saw the results of the work their counterparts in the French and Spanish navies. William Shoveller, the surgeon on Leviathan at Trafalgar [1805], was not impressed by the condition of the Spanish prisoners taken aboard, many of them ‘with tourniquets on their different extremities, and which had been applied since the action, four or five days elapsing, consequently most of the limbs in a state of mortification or approaching it.’ Shoveller had to try to do something for these men to save their lives. The seaman William Robinson was also scathing about ‘the scene of carnage horrid to behold’ on a captured Spanish ship, with the dead bodies ‘in a wounded or mutilated state’ piled up in the hold, and ‘the heart-rending cries of the wounded’ on a French ship [1785], where the doctor, ‘having lost or mislaid some of his instruments, was reduced to the necessity of resorting to the use of the carpenter’s fine saw, where amputation was needful.’ Gilbert Blane castigated the French for the mangled limbs, and even whole bodies of men, were cast into the orlop or hold and lay there putrefying for some time… When, therefore, the ballast or other contents of the holds of these ships came to be stirred, and the putrid effluvia thereby let loose, there was then a visible increase of sickness.’ Not surprisingly, dysentery and typhus were rampant. Moreover, the French and Spanish fleets did not have in place any effective measures against scurvy, and suffered a loss of experienced mariners as a result of the epidemic of yellow fever that was raging through southern Spain. When Villeneuve sailed to meet Nelson at Trafalgar, there were 1,731 sick in the Combined Fleets of France and Spain." (Brown, p. 102)

I'll continue to keep an eye out, although I'm running short of period accounts that I can easily access to read. I'd just like to find a mention of someone cleaning the decks, let alone the details of what they used. Here's something a bit later period, but worth a mention from the List of Regulations and Instructions relating to Service at Sea first put out in 1730. I had not read the parts outside the section about the surgeon before and now I'm glad I did. Note that this list of regulations was put out because these things were not being done very well before this time. (Some evidence from later period surgical accounts suggest it was not always being done very well after this time, either.) Here's the best one. It comes from the section on the Captain, in Regulations for Discipline, Cleanliness &c. Note particularly the references to air which I mentioned before and the one to sand which almost gives you guys what you seem to want. (Interestingly, sand in buckets was also used to absorb blood under the operating table during battle.) "VI. As cleanliness, dryness and good air are essentially necessary to health, the Captain is to exert his utmost endeavours to obtain them for the Ship's company in as great a degree as possible. He is to give directions that the upper decks are washed very clean every morning, and that the lower decks are washed as often as the weather will admit of their being properly dried; they are to be swept twice, at least, every day, and the dirt collected on them thrown overboard. The hammocks are to be carried upon Deck and the ports are to be opened whenever the weather will admit of it, and nor more chests nor bags than shall be necessary for the comfort of the men shall be kept on the lower gun deck, that as few interruptions as possible may be opposed to a free circulation of air. The Ventilators are to be continually worked, and the Hold and Store- __ rooms ventilated by Wind-sails. The Ship is always to be pumped dry, the pump-well frequently swabbed, and a fire, with proper precautions, let down to dry it. If the weather should prevent the lower deck ports from being opened for any considerable time, fires are to be made in the stoves supplied for that purpose, and the lower decks may be scrubbed with dry sand. VII. The captain is to be particularly attentive to the cleanliness of the men, who are to be directed to wash themselves frequently, and to change their linen twice every week. They are never to be suffered to sleep in wet clothes or wet beds, if it can be possibly prevented; they are frequently, but particularly after bad weather, to shake their clothes and bedding in the air, and to expose them to sun and wind." (Regulations, 1808, p. 138-9) Under the section defining the duties of a naval ship's Master: "IV. He is to examine every Vessel which carries ballast to the Ship, to see whether it be laden to its proper marks; he is to see that the ballast is sweet and clean, before he allows it to be taken into the Ship; and he is to examine every Vessel when cleared, to see that there is no water in her..." (Regulations, 1808, p. 183) "XV. He is frequently to visit the store-rooms of the Warrant __ Officers to see that they are kept as clean and well ventilated as circumstances will admit... XVI. He is to visit frequently the cable-tiers [which sometimes served as the operating theater], to see that they are kept clean, and that no injury is done to the cables; and he is to direct the Master's Mates to be very careful in preventing any accumulation of dirt in the hold, and to take every opportunity of collecting and throwing overboard any that may be found there." (Regulations, 1808, p. 186-7) Under the section on the Surgeon: "X. The Sick Berth, and every person appointed to attend on the sick, are to be under his [the surgeon's] immediate directions. He is to see that the berth be kept as clean as possible and that it be washed with vinegar [used to eliminate sickness, particularly that caused by bad air], whenever he shall think it necessary, and he is to apply to the Captain to give orders for its being fumigated [again, bad air], whenever it may require it." (Regulations, 1808, p. 270) ____________________________________________________________________________ [Edit, 2/22/14] David Fictim generously pointed out that the above quotes are from the 1808 regulations and not from the earliest version of the regulations published in 1731. So I clarified that in the original text without editing any of the primary content by adding the date to the citation. The 1731 edition is scant on details regarding cleanliness which isn't going to help date holystones to an earlier period. Here's what I found in the 1731 version of Regulations and instructions relating to His majesty's service at sea: "II. The Captain is to appoint some of the Ship's Company to attend and serve the sick Men Night and Day by Turns, and keep the Place clean." (Regulations, 1731, p. 54) "III. [The Gunner; Armourer; and Gunsmith] II. He is to visit the Powder-Rooms, and see that they are well secured, clean, and in right Order, before the Powder is brought into the Ship." (Regulations, 1731, p. 99)

I found these two accounts of seamen wounded shipboard which have interesting aspects to them. They're both from James Yonge's book Currus triumphalis, è terebinthô or an Account of the many admirable Vertues of Oleum Terebinthinæ [Turpentine] from 1679: "Anno [16]75. I was sent for to a Dutch __ Seamen, who being gotten drunk, threw himself into his Cabbin with all his Cloaths on: it unluckily fell out, that he had in his Pocket a sharp-pointed Knife, such as they usually carry, and that it lay in so ill a posture, that the weight of his body forced the point through sheath and cloaths, and run up above three inches (entring about the middle of the Thigh) obliquely towards his buttocks, so that the point might be an inch and half directly in from the skin, under which it lay; I drew it out, and found no part of it broken off; the Man complained of great pain, and there flowed much bloud: I then injected warm Oil of Turpentine, and put up above half-way, a thin Flamula [what this is is not clear to me - it sounds like a probe although flamula was a flower used in medicines] dip'd in the same: then rouled him up, drawing also about ten ounces of bloud from the Arm. The man slept well all night; and after two days, I using nothing but a Pledget and a Plaister on the Orifice, the Solution being all united, I let him walk about. I bled him because he was plethorick, and I intended to heal the Wound by sympathy. [Healing by sympathy was a rather bizarre theory that if you applied medicines to the weapon that made the wound, it would cause the wound to heal.]" (Yonge, terebinthô, p. 72-3) "John Boddam, belonging to Captain Patrick of Yarmouth, standing in the coyle of an Halser, by which the Ship was fastned: the straps that tied it giving way, he was drawn forward, and griped therein: so that both Legs were shattered in pieces, he was brought to shore and committed to my custody. I reduced all the bones [restored the fractured bones to correct alignment] as well as could be, but when the contused flesh came away, one of them hung by a Tendon or two above the Ancle. In fine, and Amputation was inevitable; he was a florid [red-faced] young Man, and of a replete Habit [fat, or filled with food], though some of it had been rebated by the method of Phlebotomy [bloodletting], &c. used at first: after the member was severed at the usual place, I only laid on a large Pledget of Tow, dipt in hot Ol. Terebinth, [Turpentine] and the other things as is usual, whereby the flux [flow of blood] was suddenly and safely secured." (Yonge, terebinthô, p. 79)

You pretty much summarized what Coastie and I said. Most natural smells dissipate pretty quickly; if you don't clean it, bacteria will do the job for you and create a whole new smell. The closest thing I can think of to a ship deck (for all you non-vegetarians) is your chopping board, particularly if you have a natural one. Does it reek? (What does blood smell like, anyhow? I can't place that.) Besides, imagine all the other things brought on the deck to compete with any other smells - gunpowder, dirt, spilled food, seawater, tar, wet sails and ropes, whatever the men stepped in while on shore, urine,&c.) As for the appearance, think about what the chopping board looks like over time. It has stains, but they are vague and unidentifiable. Plus it doesn't have people trodding daily upon it adding new stains and scuffing off bits of the old ones.

The ever fascinating (to me anyhow) on-line etymology website gives us a clue as to the origin of the term holystone that may be helpful. "holystone (n.) soft sandstone used to scrub decks of sailing ships, 1777, despite the spelling, so called perhaps because it is full of holes. As a verb, by 1828." So there you go. The exercise is left to readers to find the 1777 source of holystone as it's OOP and thus no longer of interest to me. Add that to mundanity and you could make a case that sandstones were likely (but so far unprovably) used on ship decks during the GAoP. Heck, sandstone is as old as dirt, so it was probably used on Roman vessels.

This is something I specifically look for in period accounts (since it relates to health) and while I have found several modern references to it being done regularly on sailing vessels, I have never yet found a reference to cleaning the decks in the period accounts. (This isn't to say I've not missed one, of course.) I even took a quick look through the Lawes or Standing Orders of the East India Company (1621) for you since I haven't read the whole thing, but I didn't see anything. (Again, not to say I didn't miss something.) There are many references to cleaning the outside of the ship (careening) but nothing much about cleaning the inside of the ship. I do have some period references to burning various herbs and spices to cleanse the air (bad air widely believed to be the cause of illness, thanks in large part to the writings of Hippocrates) but that doesn't help you much. It may be because it's so mundane that no one thought to mention it. If it were to be found, my guess is that it would probably be found somewhere in the Naval rules and regulations.

Very nice! If I were the sort who believed my character needed a fictional ship, I think I would name her the Goat Quarters. (But I don't.)

In the spring you should make the skull's pupils a flower (like a Brady Bunch flower) and make the bg tint light yellow; in the summer, you should make the pupils suns (really dopey ones with spiky rays like an 8 year old would draw) and make the bg tint light green; and in fall you should make the pupils leaves and the tint rust colored. Either that or just leave it icicles and blue tint all year round and pretend you never saw this post. (Personally, I don't get the tint. It doesn't make intuitive sense.)

Ha ha! Where the heck is the like button on this page? My favorite sketch, ever; even better than the movies. "And here is the neighbor... Here is where he lived... And this is where Lord Langden lived who refused to be interviewed by the surgeon for his Journal... so did the gentleman who lived here... and here... and, of course, here."

That's quite an image you've picked for yourself there, Zak.

Those are some awesome pictures, Coastie! The Constitution looks fantastic with all those studding sails mounted - like some sort of crazy bat coming at you.

Ha ha ha! That's Blackbeard's Patagonian Giant skull, used to strike fear in the hearts of his targets.

Interloper Slave ships were popular pirate vessels when they could get them, so I thought I'd start a topic about them and their behavior. This is really just to stick this quote somewhere so it's available to everyone. It's from Père Jean-Baptiste Labat's Memoires 1693-1705 (Translated from the original French by John Eaden, 1970): "There are English companies similar to the French African companies which enjoy the sole right of trading in slaves. But this does not stop other Englishmen going to Africa for this purpose, provided that their ship is able to defend herself from the __ companies' vessels, which they have the right to capture her as if she belonged to an enemy nation. Such ships are called Interlopers and they are always well armed. ... The interlopers suspect everyone, and therefore they allow no ship to approach unless she give the signal that has been prearranged with their shore agents and which is altered every voyage." (Labat, p. 61-2)

And you were one of those who liked the amputation article! (The images in that were far more graphic, I think.) I was looking for a near period image of a bucket of blood and Mr. Von Gersdorff's book was the most accommodating one I could find.

This month I put together the second part of the Surgeon's Quarters article I started in November. This part focuses on the surgeon's operating theater and sick bay on the orlop deck and looks at the conditions of each. It also details how the surgeon would have prepared for battle and what conditions were like during and after that. You can read the second half of the article starting on this page. If you don't remember the first part (which was concerned with the types of ships pirates used and how that would affect the location of the surgeon), you can start from the first page of the article. I quite like what I've written here, so I hope you enjoy it as well.

That is interesting, I had never noticed it before you pointed it out. Still, one appears to have just copied the other - I don't think you're getting a whole new view or anything given that the details are very similar, I think you're just seeing differences in the way one person did it versus the way another did. The positions, background details, even the markings on the cargo are the same, just mirrored and slightly altered by the engraver as you noted. It would be sort of interesting to line up all the various engravings of the same scenes in one place. (Not very useful, but sort of interesting.)

You can find most (and possibly all) of the images in those two books at the John Carter Brown library site.The scans there are very good and they are scalable so you can do pretty simple screen caps and get them that way in whatever detail you like. And this stuff isn't in copyright because the books are long out of copyright.

OK, "we bent our sails" appears to me to mean they took the canvas down. (Also, "we unbent our sails.") How ever did they arrive at that meaning?

I thought this was interesting regarding hammocks. It's from Boteler's Dialogues, published in 1634. "The over-high charging of ships also with cage-works is the main cause of most of the ill qualities, making them to be extreme leeward ships, to sink keep in the water, and to be apt to be over-set. And though the common seaman liketh it well enough, as coveting store of cabins, yet are these cabins no better than nasty holes, which breed sickness, and in a fight are very dangerous, as causing much spoil with their splinters; so that all long voyages, especially to the southwards, the lodging of the common __ men in hammocks is far more wholesome and preferable.” (Boteler, p. 257-8)

Nah, I'm going to pass on it. But thanks for the heads up.

Speaking of Fox and images, he posted a link to a series of period hunting images on Facebook. They are really interesting. Hollar Digital Collections

I like the way the edges are scalloped. Can you post a regular photo of it?

Most interesting! I look forward to hearing more. That would be telling. Actually, my evidence for this will be in the second half of the Surgeon's Quarters article which should be posted on my web page in the next week or so. I am working feverishly on it now that the Journal for the Fort Taylor Pyrate Invasion is finished.

Somewhere I read that men might be sleeping at any time of day based on the watch schedule. (I have no idea whether this is true or not, nor do I recall where I read it.) I always assumed the hammocks would be left hanging if there was no reason to take them down. I figured that when they cleared the decks for an engagement, the hammocks would come down and stowed out of the way so the ship was ready for fighting and dealing with wounded. There would be no one abed (outside of the sick and wounded) during a conflict. I have also read that the hammocks were sometimes hung in the gun deck (which I believe is what Brit.Privateer is talking about in his second post.) They would definitely need to be taken down during action as he mentioned. To add to the confusion of this discussion, the orlop deck sometimes served as a gun deck if it was above the waterline. Pirates were known to cut gun ports for the orlop so they could make their ship more formidable. In fact, all of the gun decks could be, and sometimes were, referred to as orlop decks. I have also seen reference to the surgeon being put into the cockpit which was described as being in "the hold." So part of the issue becomes the terminology soup of the time. My confusion was originally over why the hammocks would be stowed above, which I have agreed wasn't what Covel was saying. (Actually, I really just wanted someone else to read through that and verify what I thought - the hammocks would be stowed on the deck where they were located when the deck was cleared for the surgeon. I am writing about the surgeon, after all. )