sea-travel-specific illnesses such as scurvy that sailors often suffered

Please, is it within topic to discuss here sea-travel-specific illnesses such as scurvy that sailors often suffered from in former times?

Scurvy - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scurvy

 

Salt water sores are a common annoyance at sea.

 

Magellan's epic journey around the world was plagued by scurvy , it so incapacitated the ship's crew, that there were barely enough hands available to get home. What appears to have saved the day, was a quince jelly that some of the sailors had been partaking of, which contained just enough Vitamin C to ward off scurvy. But not all the crew had been eating it, and it seems just an accident of the presence of that fruit jelly, that the expedition did not founder.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q="immune+to+scurvy"&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=Ya28WbXYCOmE8Qfh7bnoDw

This Google search for "immune to scurvy" (in quotes to ensure consecutiveness) brings up (assorted rubbish, and) pages about apparent cases of men immune to scurvy. It is to be wondered if there are occasional or rare cases of humans who have a working L-gulonolactone oxidase gene and thus can make Vitamin C: see Vitamin C - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_C#Biosynthesis .

 

Easy to supplement to prevent scurvy, it would be little or no advantage to be a genetic freak that can synthesize it. During the siege of Tobruk in North Africa in WW2, Australian troops maintained battle-readiness on a horrid diet of tinned corned beef, and hard biscuits, but were supplied with Vitamin C tablets.

 

Cruise ships in modern times come with their own contagious microbes. Many a cruise and sometimes a life gets ruined by poor hygiene and sanitation, sometimes brought on by mechanical issues.

CDC - Vessel Sanitation Program - Cruise Ship Outbreak Updates https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/vsp/surv/GIlist.htm

 

Including Norwalk virus - which I have had already, but on land. Does that leave me immune to it?

 

notadoctor

 

Rudyard Kipling in his book "Captains Courageous" (about old-type Grand Banks cod fishing with schooners (made with a stump foremast) that carried dories on board); there, oilskin cuffs rubbing caused salt sores, which healed leaving characteristic wrist scars, which among the crew were treated as a sign that a sign that he was a "blooded Banker".

The dories were designed to nest in each other in a stack on board the schooner.

 

Although not unique to sailors, here is an article about maladies modern sailors are susceptible to.

7 Dangerous Diseases/Disorders Seafarers Should Be Aware Of | Marine Insight

1. Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome (HAVS):

2. Cardio-Vascular Disease (CVD):

3. Musculoskeletal Disorder (MSD):

4. Cancer:

5. Sexually Transmitted Disease (STD):

6. Pandemic And Epidemic Diseases:

7. Hypertension:

 

I don't see alcoholism in that list. All those Suntory Whisky bottles that once littered beaches in my vicinity must have been emptied by someone "out there"

 

Dental problems also occur on land, but solo at sea it's harder to get help, so Sven took precautions to avoid teeth problems at sea . .

‘‘ My appendix is already gone, so in preparation for my coming long voyage it was only logical to pull out all my teeth except the front ones, which I think, in an emergency, I can handle myself. It took some convincing before the dentist was willing to do it. . . . . . . . ’’

Hard core, I would say . . .

 

Hard to chew food, I would say ! I'd suggest an x-ray would have revealed what was likely to act up within a year or two.

 

Excessive consumption of alcohol can cause or exacerbate --

2. Cardio-Vascular Disease (CVD):
4. Cancer:
7. Hypertension:

-- and probably has some role in most of the rest of them as well!!!

 

Probably cheap duty-free grog tipped a lot of seamen into alcoholism. Plus boredom of ship-board life.