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Account of the Health of the Fleet from August, 1780, till December following. – The Fleet divided – The principal Squadron goes to North America – Fluctuation between Fevers and Fluxes – The Alcide and Torbay the most sickly Ships – Health mended by the Climate and Diet in North America – Hurricane in the West Indies – Sufferings in consequence of it – Fevers the chief Disease.

The hurricane months approaching, the season for active operations in the West Indies was now over. The whole force of the enemy, consisting of thirty-fix French and Spanish ships of the line, having gone to St. Domingo in the end of July, ten sail of the line were detached after them from our station, for the protection of Jamaica. The Admiral sailed for North America in August, with eleven ships of the line, leaving six for the protection of the islands.

There was little alteration in the general state of the sick during the voyage to America, and indeed we found no diminution of the West-India heat, which at this season is at the greatest height, until we came to the 33° of N. latitude.

The only material alteration in point of health was in the Alcide and Torbay, which had arrived from England with a few men ill of fevers; but in the course of this voyage these two ships became as unhealthy as any that ever came under my observation. There was a greater number of sick on board of them than all the fleet besides, and it increased to such a degree, that upon their arrival at New York, which was in the middle of September, after a passage of three weeks, near one half of their men were unfit for duty. In the Alcide it was a fever that raged; in the Torbay it was a dysentery; and the unusual degree of sickness and mortality which appears in the Table for the month of September, was owing to the very sickly state of these two ships.

TABLE III

Shewing the Number of Fevers and Fluxes on board on the First of each Month, and the Number sent to the Hospital in the Course of the Month.

Key: B On board. H Sent to the Hospital.

We shall hereafter see reason for supposing that fever and dysentery proceed from the same cause; and as both these ships arrived from England in a similar state with regard to health, fevers would probably have been the prevailing disease in both; but a part of the 87th regiment, then serving as marines in the fleet, was put on board of the Torbay at St. Christopher’s, and some of them being ill of the dysentery, gave this turn to the disease which afterwards prevailed on board. I have formed a Table to shew the fluctuating state of these two diseases, and this was one of my first and most imperfect attempts towards a medical history of the fleet in a methodical way. (Table III.)

There was but little sickness in the rest of this squadron, except in the Terrible, where the dysentery prevailed a good deal. None of the ships of the line which we found in the West Indies, upon our arrival there, were now in company, except the Yarmouth, and this was the most healthy of all the ships that went to North America.

The health of the fleet was very much recruited by its short stay in America; for the men were supplied with fresh meat and spruce beer, and they enjoyed the two finest months of the year in that temperate climate. The squadron left New York in the middle of November, and though dispersed by a violent storm, all the ships arrived safe in the West Indies before the middle of December.

In October the fleet had attained such a degree of health, that though the calculation in the Table is made from five of the most sickly ships, no death happened in this month on board of any of them. In November the mortality was also inconsiderable, though the ships left in the West Indies are included in the calculation; which, had it been made upon those only that went to North America, the deaths would have been no more than one in seven hundred and eleven in this month, which is rather less than that of any other month in the Table.

The amendment in health, in consequence of the change of climate, was most remarkable in the Terrible, which, by the time she left America, had entirely got rid of the violent dysentery that had prevailed for some time on board. This sudden change in the health of this ship was evidently owing to the great attention of the Captain to cleanliness and discipline, and no less to the assiduity and abilities of the Surgeon. The Alcide still continued sickly, though not so much so as the Torbay. The former had sailed on a cruise in October, and having met with very rough weather, the sick list was thereby increased. The dysentery now prevailed in that ship, as well as fevers, and those men chiefly were attacked with fevers who were ill of the scurvy, or recovering from it. This was not very common; and there were several other remarkable particulars with regard to the fevers in this ship; for her men were not only uncommonly subject to this disease, both in America and the West Indies, but to all the various forms of it; the low, infectious, ship fever of Europe, the bilious remitting, and the malignant yellow fever of hot climates. It would appear from this, as well as other instances, that a ship may assume, as it were, a particular constitution, or a tendency to some particular disease, for a length of time, and this depending on some lurking and adhering infection, or the manner in which she may have been victualled, watered, disciplined, or manned.

The great benefit derived to the health of the fleet, from the change of climate, as well as other reasons, justified the Admiral in going to North America; and there was the more merit in this measure, as it was undertaken without precedent, and without instruction. Upon our return we found there was great good fortune in it, as well as wisdom; for there had happened on the 10th of October a more violent hurricane than any in the memory of man, and the ravage it made both by sea and land is, perhaps, unparallelled in history. Several of the ships of the line were exposed to it; but though they suffered extremely, and were in the utmost danger, none were lost. Two of them happened to be at Antigua, which was out of the track of this hurricane, as it extended only from the 12th to the 15th degree of N. latitude; so that the only islands that suffered by it were Barbadoes, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Martinico. – Four frigates, and as many sloops of war, either foundered or were wrecked, and about one thousand seamen perished in them. One of the buildings of the hospital at Barbadoes was entirely demolished by the impetuosity of the sea, which, having risen to a great height, dashed a ship against it, and twenty-three seamen were buried in the ruins3.

The Montague suffered most on this occasion, and was also most subject to sickness and mortality, brought on in consequence of the great fatigue and hardships of the men in bringing her into port and refitting her; for the ship was almost torn to pieces both in the rigging and hull, and the bedding and other necessaries and conveniencies were entirely destroyed. The fever that prevailed on board at this time was of the most malignant kind known in this climate; and the worst cases arose in watering, and the other necessary duties on shore, from which the men would sometimes return frantic, and die in a few hours. There was a party of soldiers on board; and as they were not called upon to perform any duties on shore, they had but little sickness in companion of the sailors.

The other ships having suffered less from the storm, were also less sickly, as it was not necessary for them to remain so long in the unhealthy Carenage to repair.

The only disease that prevailed at this time, in these two ships, was fevers, there being few or no fluxes, though they had been so frequent in the former part of the year. Though fevers and fluxes depend on the same general causes, yet when these causes exist in a higher degree, it would appear that they are more apt to produce fevers. Thus the exhalations of the earth from marshes are more apt to produce fevers; and mere excesses of heat and cold, or moisture, are more apt to produce fluxes; just as in Europe a catarrh, which may be considered as a local febrile affection, as well as a dysentery, will be excited by exposure to cold or damp, without any specific bad quality in the air.

The Ajax and Montague are the only two ships of those left in the West Indies, which are included in the estimate of sickness and mortality in November and December, and they bear a very great proportion to the whole; for out of forty-four that died in fourteen ships of the line in November, twenty died in the Montague, and five in the Ajax; and out of forty-three, the whole number of deaths in December in twenty-one ships of the line, ten were of the Montague, and eleven of the Ajax.