Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
merchant ships across the Bay of Biscay and force all foreign vessels
he came across to identify themselves. Because members of the con-
voy were frequently being sent to chase after unidentified craft, it
took five weeks to reach Madeira, the first revictualling point.
On 3 November they set out on the Atlantic crossing, having
loaded as much provisions as the holds could carry. That meant
that as the ships, sitting low in the water, encountered the light airs
and humidity of the Doldrums their lower gun ports had to be kept
closed. This turned the crews' living quarters into floating slums.
Sailors and marines lived in cramped conditions anyway, their ham-
mocks slung in the confined spaces between the cannon, but the op-
pressive heat and lack of ventilation, coupled with the rapid spread
of disease turned the gun decks into filthy, creaking, airless hovels,
where the stench was unimaginably foul. Ship's fever and dysentery
seeped along the vessels from stem to stern. Men too weak to crawl
to the 'heads' urinated and emptied their bowels where they lay. The
only treatment the surgeons and their assistants could offer was the
distribution of laxatives among the sick, which only made conditions
worse. For the sufferers death must have seemed a welcome altern-
ative to pain, delirium and the inescapable stink of vomit and excre-
ment. Burials at sea became almost daily occurrences:
November 26th 1740 . . . Richard Pearce an invalid deceased . . .
November 29th 1740 . . . Amos Gordon and Edward Major, sea-
men, departed this life . . .
December 12th 1740 . . . Mr Robert Weldon our purser being quite
worn out departed this life . . .
December 15th 1740 . . . David Redman a marine departed this
life . . .
5
It is, of course, true that the homes ashore from which many
of the men came were dank and insanitary. But, even when due al-
