PRESFR-
' VATION
OF MARINERS.
fort, and bad quality, either adlually rancid, or fuch as is on the
point o f becoming fo. How ill fuited oil is in fuch a date to
health, I leave to thofe to judge who know what effects acids have
upon our frame. Wheat or oatmeal are provided for: the navy for
breakfad, and are both moft excellent aliments for men, who are
deprived of frelh vegetable diet, during a long fpace o f time.
W e have hitherto examined the food on board o f fuch fhips as are
performing long voyages-: we are next to. examine, the other parts,
o f the ceconomy of a failor.. Th e great numbers o f people per-
fpiring and breathing in a fhip, mud naturally render the air between
decks at lad unfit for breathing; or at lead fo much charged
with alkaline and'-feptic effluvia,, that it mud be very difficult to'
preferve the health o f the feamen in the midfl of fuch a cloud of'
infedting fleams; this will become more evident, by Confidering
that the bilge-water in the pump-well, isi more than fufficient to
fill the whole fliip with noxious effluvia. After we - left Plymouth,
in the year 177-2, and gradually came into warmer climates,
a mod intolerable dench began to fpread throughout the drip ;
the bilge-water having become h ighly putrid, and diffufing its noxious
effluvia from the motion, continually forming and prefen ting
new furfacesifor the: evaporation of theioffendve particles. No
parts were more infeCted by this fmell, than my own and my Ton’s
cabins, becaufe they were neared to the main mad, and confe-
x quently
quently clofe to the opening o f the pumps from whence preser-
this horrid dench was communicated to the upper parts VATI0N
r r * OF MARIo
f sthe fhip. I was then little acquainted with naval affairs, ners.
and communicated; accidentally my fentiments to the Captain;
he immediately fuppofed the bilge-water to : be the-’ caufe,
and explained to me the fituation o f the pump-well, and that all
the mpidure of the fhip mud be collected in that place; he added
the fhip had been detained for fuch a long fpace of time at
Sheernefs and Plymouth, that it was no wonder i f the water fhould
have become. putrid : its. depth was meafured, and found to be a
few inches high only, which is. never thought fufficient to make
it worth while to pump it o ut; the water therefore remained, and
the flench continued for fome time, till it gradually became lefs
pffenfive,; however I then .recommended the ufe of fire and fumigations
between decks as the bed remedies, againfl this dreadful
flench and the noxious effluvia o f this fink.. I find b.y'my journal,
that my advice was followed during our paffage from Madeira to
the Cape Verd Iflands, anterior to the 8th of Augud, and that the
air was rarefied by charcoal fires, and fometimes by fetting fire to
brimdone or pitch, or even to a mixture o f gun-powder and vinegar.
* When this was done, all hands were called on deck,
all
* The friend of Capt. Cook, mentioned by.Sir John Pringle in his Difconrfe, who obferved
that the old twenty gun (hips, had their gaily or kitchen in the fore-part of the orlop, and
fufpe&ed