Scurvy Research Paper

Since childhood most people have watched their favorite pirate movie and fantasized about being on a ship that was commanded by a captain with a wooden leg or they have dreamed of being on a Caribbean island looking for buried treasure. Most of what’s been told to the masses about the life of people who have sailed the high seas is not fully accurate. The reality is the life of a so - called pirate and sailor was extremely harsh and very dangerous. Scurvy killed more sailors than all battles, storms and other diseases combined from the 16th to 18th centuries. A seaman had to be weary of many things such as, bad weather, the criminal element and most crucial of all, diseases. Scurvy also called: scorbutus is a disease that is caused by the severe lack of vitamin C which cannot be produced internally by humans, it must be ingested through the diet, the main reason sailors would often become afflicted with the sickness is that they would be out to sea for weeks and months at a time, after ten or more weeks at sea, they would begin to experience pain and stiffness in the joints, shortness of breath , they would become very tired and weak, the lower portion of their bodies would become covered with large purple spots. their gums would swell and grow over their teeth, sometimes not allowing them to eat, causing starvation. They would die suddenly, "in the middle of a sentence,". …show more content…
Of the 160 men that set out with da Gama, it is believed that 100 died from scurvy during the voyage. da Gama’s voyage resulted in the first record of “sea scurvy.” Luis de Camoens, a soldier and poet on da Gama’s voyage, wrote the poem The Lusiad about the deaths from scurvy:
A dread disease its rankling horror shed, And death’s dire ravage through mine army