MadRose

From the Times today: "Over the centuries, doctors described disorders like “wrist drop,” in which housepainters using leaded paint would suddenly lose control of their wrist musculature, and “dry gripes,” a complaint among early American colonists that was linked to the drinking of West Indian rum that, as a result of its processing, was brimming with lead." If West Indian rum was "brimming with lead", then sailors were probably affected, right? Does anyone have any leads on this? The "dry gripes" were a condition in which the intestines would temporarily shut down. Other acute symptoms of lead poisoning: lead encephalopathy, attacks of coma, delirium, convulsions. Chronic symptoms: mental dullness, inability to concentrate, poor memory, headache, deafness, wrist drop (loss of muscle control in painters using lead-based paints), a blue line on the gums and transitory joint pain. (Historical Perspective to a Current Controversy on the Clinical Spectrum of Plumbism, by Jacqueline K. Corn The Milbank Memorial Fund Quarterly. Health and Society © 1975 Milbank Memorial Fund)

History of disease and medicine is a pet topic of mine. However, I've never tried to combine it with my interest in the GAoP, so the below is informed speculation: For the 17th and 18th century sailors, I suppose venereal disease -- syphilis in particular -- are foremost in my mind. Then there's the smallpox (measles, too) that came to the Americas on ships well before the GAoP, but was still merrily decimating native populations. Yellow fever is another "good " one, as a mosquito-borne port disease the sailors might have encountered. Malaria, too. Tuberculosis, typhoid and typhus, the latter two being diseases of poor hygiene... I'm sure that the crowded conditions on a ship made the spread of lice and fleas inevitable, carrying with them typhus, etc. With so many rats on ships, rat bites and droppings in food were likely not uncommon. Personal hygiene was lacking, as was antiseptic practice in medicine, and that could not have helped matters, especially not when it came to dysentery ("flux" in contemporary documents) or typhus. Wounds were terribly prone to infection. Scurvy was important of course, but not contagious and therefore not that interesting to me. Wasn't Blackbeard seeking medicine for his diseased crew? Can anyone confirm this -- or what the disease was? Aside from that story, I can't think of any pirate-specific disease-related anecdotes. There must have been syphilitic pirate captains doing crazy stuff somewhere, right? I know, not necessarily. Mad Rose (not syphilitic)

A quick google scholar search revealed this: "There is ample evidence that tattooing has continuously survived in civilized societies, including Europe, at some low level of prevalence, from the earliest recorded times to the present. The evidence that European, and later American, seafarers had a continuous tradition of tattooing from early times into the modern period is fragmentary, but he inference is strong that the custom persisted among seafarers who comprised a subset of the lower classes. "Most of modern literature on the subject, however, takes the view that tattooing of European (and American) seafarers in modern times resulted from the "rediscovery" of the practice at the time of the late 18th-century Pacific voyages...." The article goes on to mention Cook: "but the conventional view that the practice of modern seafarer tattooing itself started with the Cook voyages is probably incorrect." ...Tattooing replaces branding for certain offenses in 1717 The sailors on the Bounty were not tattooed in Tahitian patterns, which suggests that the practice wasn't all that new at the time. The paper goes on for 35 pages, but mostly seems to be about the later 18th century and early 19th. The tattoos recorded are interesting -- mostly seem to be hearts and initials. The Tattoos of Early American Seafarers, 1796-1818, by Ira Dye Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society © 1989 American Philosophical Society

You are all so helpful! I'll be looking into all of these contacts soon. Also looking forward to participating on this forum; I've enjoyed what I've read here. Isn't it odd that a New England school with a solid history department has no maritime historians at all on faculty? Mad Rose

Permission to come aboard? I'm a college student in Rhode Island with an interest in pirates (one that predates PotC, thankyouverymuch). One wonderful thing about my school is that if one can write a well-researched (in this case, ten pages written in my blood and exhausted tears) syllabus and a mission statement, recruit a faculty sponsor and a group of interested students and push through two committees, one can create a class: thus was born the History of Piracy, which I arranged for next semester. This seemed like a good place to ask: does anyone know of good resources for fun-yet-piratically-historical activities around or in Providence, or of historians (or obsessive hobbyists) who might be willing to speak to a group of at least mildly obsessive college students (though the rules of the school prohibit our paying a speaker, I believe)? The class includes several members of Arrr!, our pirate arrr-capella group. Much thanks! Mad Rose (Gail)