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Cook's Endeavour , ship of discovery or ship of distemper: an assessment after 250 years
Author(s) -
Short Bruce H.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
internal medicine journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.596
H-Index - 70
eISSN - 1445-5994
pISSN - 1444-0903
DOI - 10.1111/imj.14795
Subject(s) - scurvy , medicine , crew , documentation , battle , ancient history , revelation , bay , malaria , archaeology , history , pathology , literature , art , computer science , programming language , vitamin c
The 250‐year anniversary of Cook's landfall at Botany Bay on 28 April 1770, approximately half way through a global circumnavigation, was an extraordinary maritime undertaking. An enterprise of astronomy, cartography, cultural–botanical documentation and revelation achieved without a death from infectious disease and only 10 mild cases of scurvy in a ship's company of 95 men. The subsequent homeward journey was far less endurable, marked by shipwreck, unforeseen prolonged delays and fatal epidemics of flux and malaria. Mild scurvy within a handful of souls in a crew experimenting with several putative antiscorbutics, yet at voyage's end the precise treatment of scurvy remained enigmatic.