18th Century cleaness and Health

[lwhitehead]

Hi I was wondering how clean were they in the 18th Century, I mean they didn't take Baths and Showers as well know it, more like sponge baths. They didn't have Smell Wells and body washes of 21th Century what did they use?,

 

I also know that Medicne of that era was very painful due to the simple fact they couldn't knock out the person operataing on,

 

LW

[Mission]

The answer is that we don't really know the answer.

For the somewhat 'pro' hygiene argument, see the thread GAOP Era Grooming & Hygiene starting at this post. (You can pretty much ignore the posts before it because while they contain a few correct ideas, they contain an awful lot of incorrect ones.) For the somewhat 'con' hygiene argument, see: Do You Want to Be Truly Period Correct? (I personally spent much of that thread trying to find the most horrible examples of period hygiene that I could.) This may also interest you (particularly Captain Sterling's responses): Let's talk dental hygiene.

This is the trouble with researching the reality of the period - there are LOTS of holes. The best information I've found on hygiene are brief mentions in diaries and journals, usually written by people on land, not at sea. I have read a variety of period and near-period sailor's journals and many things don't seem to merit mentioning such as hygiene. Anyone who has ever kept a journal or diary will probably agree that such things don't usually wind up in there because the writer doesn't deem it worth mentioning. However, here is the one example I have,

"[washing] Moreover, I had more than enough to do already, what with tending the ship's crew, patching my clothes and washing my linen; doing, in short, what one must do for himself if he wishes to keep himself free from vermin, which are terribly numerous and are always running up the masts. Thus, one puts the dirty linen into a baler or tub and pours fresh water over it (for one can neither drink sea-water nor wash with it); the clothes are then rubbed with soap and are then rinsed in sea-water and hung up on deck and quickly dried. For one would scarce believe how dense, salt and drying the sea-air is." (Johann Dietz, Master Johann Dietz, Surgeon in the Army of the Great Elector and Barber to the Royal Court, Translated by Bernard Miall, London, England, 1923,  p. 129)

You would think that the Navy would have regulations about this, but they didn't during this period. The earliest British Naval Regulations book we have is Regulations and Instructions Relating to His Majesty's Service at Sea, dating to just after the golden age of the pirates in 1731.  While it doesn't mention the cleanliness of the men. It has much to say about keeping the ship clean:

[Regarding the store room] "...such of the Stores [supplies] as require it [are] to be frequently brought upon Deck, to be survey d and to be aired, and their Defects repaired; and the Store-Rooms are to be cleaned, aired, and put into good Condition, and made as secure as possible against Rats." (p. 27)

"[The sick bay] The Captain is to appoint some of the Ship's Company to attend and serve the sick Men Night and Day by Turns, and to keep the Place clean." (p. 54)

"[The ship's Master is to] see the Balast [is] all taken into the [hold of the] Ship, and that it be clean, sweet [not foul-smelling], and wholsome..." (p. 93)

"He [the gunner] is to visit the Powder-Rooms, and see that they be well secured, clean, and in right Order, before the Powder is brought into the Ship." (p. 99)

"...the Decks are immediately after [firing the cannons] to be thoroughly swabbed, and cleaned of the loose Powder that may have fallen." (p. 100)

I've saved the best for last. We have this entry from Nataniel Boteler's Botelers Dialogues (this is from the 1688 version, based on the original which dates to around 1630-40, well before the GAoP), which were written to represent guidelines in force on naval ships. (Were they the rules in force on every ship? It isn't certain.)

"The Office of the Swabber is to see the Ship kept neat and clean, and that as well in the great Cabbin, as every where else betwixt the Decks; to which end he is, at the least once or twice a week, if not every day, to cause the Ship to be well washed within Board and without above Water, and especially about the Gun-walls, and the Chains; and for prevention of infection, to burn sometimes Pitch, or the like wholsom perfumes, between the.decks: He is also to have a regard to every private Mans Sleeping place; and to admonish them all in general to be cleanly and handsom, and to complain to the Captain, of all such as will be any way nastie and offensive that way." (Boteler, p. 18)

 

[lwhitehead]

Your right about the holes in history it's hard to pin stuff down when one is trying to write about a period a getting it write, I thought under George II his reforms cleaned up alot of Naval problems.

 

 

LW