FEVERS AND DISEASES AMONG SEAMEN
John G. Avery

In Britain, the records of the Navy Office show the numbers of deaths of seamen over sporadic periods. From about 1779 just the annual numbers were recorded but from 1811 the cause of death was often shown.

The smaller ships were often used as guard ships, prison hulks, for seamen recovering from injury or illness and the general term "misfits" such as demoted officers and the crew rescued from a shipwreck etc.. Awaiting another appointment. It was relatively common to send naval defaulters to such ships to serve their sentence. Often on being released from a debtor's prison a man would join the navy as a means of supporting himself. These ships were often in need of repair but the Navy spent money on the refitting of the larger fighting ships. The inmates arriving from the gaols were usually in an unhealthy state; typhoid often ran through the gaols. Known by various names such as gaol fever, ship fever or barrack fever merely indicated where it had originated in that area. It was from this source that the admirals drafted men to the bigger deep sea ships to man them for long voyages often heading into fever zones such as the West Indies where the weak and in poor health were the most vulnerable. Some of these unfortunates would die on the outward voyage and once fevers such as yellow fever broke out, few survived.

The fleet of Sir Francis Wheeler attempted to attack the French in the Windward Islands in 1693 but without much success. In the winter months he headed the fleet northwards with the intention of attacking the French at Quebec. However, when the fleet arrived at Boston it was desperately weak as after leaving Barbados there was a major outbreak of yellow fever amongst the seamen and soldiers. The fleet consisted of 2,100 seamen and 2,400 soldiers. On leaving England he had brought 1,800 soldiers recruited from the guard ships, prisons and "volunteers" in overcrowded troop ships with virtually no means of getting fresh air on the lower deck. He lost over 3,100 men die to the fever, some of the survivors deserted at Boston. Weak, low in morale the fleet set sail for England no doubt to off load many of the sick back onto the smaller guard ships to act as a  reserve. The French at Quebec probably owed their survival to the English fleet's lost battle with yellow fever.

The West Indies was at the hub of the many conflicts between the British, the Spanish and the French. The British Navy had the power to press men into service from merchantmen and from the plantations. Thus your ancestor could arrive in the West Indies on a civilian ship and did not arrive back in England for some years or so on a naval ship. We did not have a permanent naval service personnel, often when a ship returned it was paid off and resumed service as a merchantman (the term "to the ordinary" was often used). Tracing the career of seamen from those times is fraught with difficulty. The Navy sometimes commandeered a whole ship or just members of the crew and of course the dreaded press picked up individual men walking the  streets in our ports and villages.

The slave trader Hannibal arrived at Carlisle Bay, Barbados in November 1694 during a major outbreak of yellow fever. The Navy attempted to press the entire crew into naval service as their own ships had suffered many deaths. The Hannibal set sail for England in company with other merchantmen in a convoy escorted by the navy ship Tiger. The Tiger herself had been on station for two years and had buried 600 men due to fevers. Her compliment was 220 men and as their numbers fell the captain had regularly recruited pressmen from the slave and sugar trade ships. Each day they counted the dead, they then went off with the Press to recruit replacements. Men were lined up at the plantations and the Press men selected their choice. The next day the same exercise would occur.

Parliament began to take a greater interest in the nation's health in early 1805 when a Board of Health was set up to advise on the risk of the yellow fever and typhoid then spreading from Spain and Gibraltar.

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