Scurvy

The fascinating story of the greatest medical mystery of the Age of Sail From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, one dreaded foe was responsible for more deaths at sea than piracy, shipwreck and all other illnesses combined. This scourge of the seas was Scurvy. A cure had eluded doctors and philosophers since the time of the ancient Greeks. Countless mariners perished from an agonising death which began with bleeding gums, wobbly teeth, and the opening of old wounds. By the eighteenth century, exploration, military politics and global trade were almost impossible without finding Scurvy’s cure. Surgeon James Lind, sea captain James Cook, and physician Sir Gilbert Blane undertook the weighty task of cracking the riddle of Scurvy. Their achievements heralded a new age and solved the greatest medical mystery of the Age of Sail.