Far more sailors died from disease than from storms or enemy action. This fascinating course explores the hidden medical world below decks, where cramped conditions, poor hygiene and limited medical knowledge made long voyages extraordinarily dangerous. Participants will learn about scurvy, typhus, dysentery, cholera and other diseases, while discovering how naval surgeons worked under extreme conditions and how advances in nutrition, hygiene and medicine gradually transformed maritime life. Drawing on voyages of exploration and Royal Navy records, the course reveals how the struggle against disease shaped maritime history as profoundly as navigation and warfare.

DELIVERY MODE

Face to face

COURSE RESOURCES

• https://hekint.org/?s=richard+de+grijs
• https://globalmaritimehistory.com/tag/richard-de-grijs/

COURSE OUTLINE

• Why disease, not battle, was the greatest killer at sea.
• Life below deck: overcrowding, poor sanitation and contaminated food and water.
• Dysentery, typhus, yellow fever and cholera: epidemics in the confined world of a sailing ship.
• The ship's surgeon: physician, dentist, pharmacist and emergency surgeon rolled into one.
• Amputation without anaesthetic: the terrifying reality of naval surgery.
• Tropical disease, quarantine and the challenges of global exploration.
• How better hygiene, nutrition and medical practice gradually transformed life at sea.
• The surprising legacy of maritime medicine for modern public health.
• Why captains feared an invisible enemy more than enemy warships.
• The strange medicines, dubious cures and hard-won medical breakthroughs of the Age of Sail.
• Extraordinary stories of endurance, survival and scientific discovery in one of history's harshest working environments.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Explain why disease claimed far more lives at sea than naval warfare during the Age of Sail.
• Describe how conditions aboard sailing ships contributed to the spread of infectious disease.
• Identify the major illnesses that affected sailors and understand their causes, symptoms and historical impact.
• Appreciate the challenges faced by ship's surgeons working with limited medical knowledge and equipment.
• Understand how discoveries in hygiene, nutrition and naval medicine gradually reduced mortality at sea.
• Recognise the important contribution of maritime medicine to the development of modern public health.
• Evaluate how disease influenced exploration, naval warfare and global maritime history.
• Gain a deeper appreciation of the resilience of sailors, surgeons and explorers confronting some of history's most hostile environments.