Scurvy was AWFUL

[nam]

The brittish were well aware of how to prevent scurvy and often times carried tones of limes that would take up valuable cargo space. As a result british sailors earned the name "limeys" from other sailors who hadn't yet adopted the practice because apparently it was seen as manly to not care about disease

[yazanraouf]

I heard that captain cook got some sauerkraut with him bc it prevented scurvy

[melody]

As soon as they found out citrus prevents scurvy, it was mandatory.

[kingofthesea]

Fun fact. When scurvy progresses enough every scar you have will reopen. Ever. It's as unpleasant as it sounds

[lelandunruh]

It's so wild to me that the leading cause of death for sailors for centuries was something I can now prevent for a month with a $1.25 bottle of vitamin C from the dollar store.

[doommood]

Ya know, we hear about all these strong, powerful pirates, and figures during the years of sailing, but I wonder if there was ever a pirate so good, so vicious, and so strong that they named him scurvy

[SpikeHewho]

Real talk: sailing the ocean back then is about as deadly as us trying to go to space in general rn.

[jackboom]

One Piece actually had a character almost die of scurvy which seems to be morbidly funny in a manga where some characters have superpowers from eating fruit.

[Jack_Woods]

I love how the book called "Observations on Scurvy"
has a picture of some beautiful flowers on the cover

[dillonventola]

The Japanese navy was crippled by beriberi in the late 1800s because their sailors relied on a diet of mostly rice. Crazy how malnutrition can crush even the strongest opponent

[notgabbyb]

it was pretty bad. vitamin c is a coenzyme and it was pretty important

[TeeBeeAre]

I love bringing stuff like this up when people romanticize the past. “omg I was born in the wrong time” like wtf do you want to suffer and die young?

[luggy]

So if they just loaded meat as their rations it would have been an issue, or with fresh meat, salted meat I’m not entirely sure.

But for scurvy to occur, you need carbohydrates in your diet, because we use the vitamin c to process carbs, or something like that.

But most rations for sailors wasn’t meat, it was a type of “biscuit” a very fucking hard piece of bread that lasts literally years.

That’s why people can live healthy lives on a pure carnivore diet, although most that do eat said diet eat lots of offal (organ meat) which is high in vitamins and minerals.

[Zachary-]

Scurvy literally unravels your scar tissue, causing you to bleed out from wounds that healed decades ago.

[samthesequel]

Oh it's bad, my doctorate at Sam O Nella academy taught me that one.

[danmorgan]

The tragic thing is they knew how to deal with scurvy in antiquity but the knowledge was lost.

[jaystreet]

Yeah it’s exceptionally painful also. Blood gets in to your joints and you’re on a rocking ship so it’s basically hell.

[jasonlacroix]

Whenever I go out boating for the day, I always bring an orange to prevent scurvy.

[jayfenny]

It’s why the Royal Navy sailors are often called limeys. Britain was one of the first to use limes to prevent scurvy and the names stuck

[brandonreid]

Man that's crazy! That drawn picture depicting the man with scurvy is from a really cool book I used to get from the library of my elementary school almost everytime!! It was a very large and had all kinds of unreal and gruesome hand drawn pictures of sailors and ships and everything!! What a memory thank you hahah