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Victuals and Ventilation and the Health and Efficiency of Seamen

1948; BMJ; Volume: 5; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1136/oem.5.4.185

1470-7926

F. P. Ellis,

Maritime Navigation and Safety

The importance of good victuals and sound methods for ventilating ships to the maintenance of.healthand efficiency of seamen is so well known thkt it may appear unnecessary to ask if the lessons and examples, with which British naval history abounds are given the full consideration they merit in modem warship design and operation.We are, however, at the dawft of a new age in naval 'development as in tnany other spheres of interest.In the same way as the coastal voyages of the slave-driven galleys of ancient times and the Middle Ages gave way, following the introduction of th'e mariners' compass by Prince Henry of Portugal, to the great navigations of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries and the maritimne wars of the eighteenth; so now may the steam and motor-driven vessels of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries to which we are accustomed be replaced by ships of'new design, not only propelled at high speeds by new forms of power, but also greatly modified in structure because of the possi- bilities of future aerial, submarine, biological, and atomic warfare, and equipped to a high degree with complicated devices and weapons requiring skill, discrimination, and sustained concentration for their successful operation.Future developments cannot fail to affect the naval way of.life;and enough has been seen in recent years of what can happen when the gadgeteer is allowed to run wild, to warn those responsible for the welfare and health of the men to keep a weather eye on plans for the future, and to ensure that the leqsons of the past as well as those of the present are not neglected.Historical Background Until the reign of Henry VIII warships as such did not exist.Seaborne traffic was carried on by merchantmen, heavily armed, which were chartered by the King when he required them to carry his armies across the Channel for the wars with France.The sixteenth century, however, was one of\great discovery.After Vasco da Gama's voyage to the East Indies in 1493, and after Cabot had sailed to Newfoundland from Bristol in 1496, the Merchant Adventurers' Company was set up in 1505.Magellan rounded.Cape Horn in 1520; in 1530 William Hawkins sailed to Guinea and Brazil; Richard Chancellor navigated the Northern Sea to visit Moscow in 1553 and founded the Muscovy Company; in 1577-80 Drake circumnavigated the globe, and on December 31, 1600, the East India Company was formed.Moore (1911) stresses the poor understanding of ship ventilation and the neglect of human require- ments which undermined the health of the Fleet under Henry VIII, and he describes how, when Calais was lost in the time of Mary, the spread of.disease contributed largely to the ineffectiveness of the British foices.Even the great naval battle of-1588 ywhich resulted in the defeat of the Armada was fought by a British Fleet which was largely ravaged by epidemics.Letters from the Lord High Admiral, Howard of Effingham, to Burleigh and Walsingham continually stressed the need for replaeimg sick men and for.providing money for clothed and other necessities for the crews who were in a parlous state after eight months at sea; and they told also of the attempts made to defeat the scourge by cleaning out.ballast, airing ships with fires, and renewing ships' companies.The winds scattered the enemy but the English.lossesfrom disease were desperately heavy-,.Disease flourished particularly amongst the conscript motley of landsmen who were-impressed in those days to serve in warships in times of national crisis.The tried and picked crews who signed on for special expeditions between the wars to sail under commanders such as Drake, who had care for the needs of their men, fared much better.185Valley.