What Was Hygiene Like On Pirate Ships

The Buccaneers from Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean attraction can be heard singing: Yo, ho, ho! The life of a

pirate

for me. It's a catchy lyric. But it was probably written by someone who had no idea how incredibly disgusting and disease-ridden

pirate

ships

really were. Inadequate nutrition and constant exposure made sailors very susceptible to disease and unable to find living spaces, and the lack of access to clean water allowed those diseases to spread quickly throughout the

ships

. Today we are going to see

what

hygiene

was like on pirate ships. But before we get started, be sure to subscribe to the Weird History Channel and let us know in the comments below

what

other pirate-related topics you'd like to hear about.

Arr. Now, wash everything by hand. Pirate

hygiene

is coming. Pirates were famous for many things. But having great dental plans wasn't one of them. This is probably because most pirates did nothing to take care of their teeth. And if they did, it would probably be something like chewing on a wooden stick. They didn't invent the practice. These chew sticks actually date back to the ancient world and remained a fairly common means of cleaning teeth until the 18th century. Of course, finding chew sticks in the sea was not an easy task. So even a pirate who was conscious of dental health would often go long periods without even the most basic oral care.

Fresh water was stored on a ship for cooking and drinking. So when it was time to bathe, the average pirate probably just jumped into the ocean for a quick rinse. Despite the ease, bathing would have been a rather strange task. This was due to several reasons. First, salt water is not good for your skin. And accidental ingestion could make a man sick. Secondly, abandoning ship could be dangerous. Pirates used to believe in sea monsters. And it was impossible to know if any might be lurking in the depths beneath the ship. And third, the pirates were not very good swimmers.

Despite what almost every pirate movie would have us believe, most captains didn't wear fancy vests or pants. Rather, they typically dressed for comfort and practicality. And could you blame them? They would probably wear the same clothes for months at a time: clothes that would normally be soaked in their own sweat and blood, and occasionally other people's blood. If his clothes were cleaned, it would be when the pirates were on land. Even then, washing would only be done with water or salt water. It was unlikely that soap was involved. In the 19th century, whaling was a huge industry.

Whaling ships often carried valuable resources. And this made them common targets for pirates and privateers. Commercial whalers in the Azores Islands were processing whale blubber as early as the 10th century. It was the basis for things like oil, lubricant, and, most importantly for our purposes here, soap. It is likely that pirates took the blubber from whalers to manufacture them themselves. That being said, making your own soap with whale blubber is no fun. Processing the animal was incredibly difficult. And, by all indications, it smells overwhelmingly horrible. Although bathrooms date back to the 16th century, there were none on pirate ships.

Instead, they had a head, which was actually just a wooden board with a hole leading into the water below. Why was it called head? Well, the board was usually located in the bow or bow of the ship. Sailors named the board for its location on the ship and the name stuck. In fact, head is still a fairly common term for a bathroom on a ship and elsewhere. Interestingly, royal navy ships had proper facilities, but only for officers. Common sailors had heads just like pirates. And when the weather was bad, they probably sometimes used a pot instead of the board and then just threw the dirt overboard.

Movies like Pirates of the Caribbean make the life of pirates seem like a never-ending adventure. But that's only because they leave out all the cleaning. Yes, pirates spent much of their time washing their ships inside and out. The covers had to be scrubbed. Repairs had to be made. And the blades and side arms had to be cleaned. Each sailor had assigned tasks to perform. And the work was not easy. There was also periodic maintenance. In the same way that you have to take your car to get its oil changed every once in a while, every few months, a pirate would have to go find a place to careen his boat.

This refers to tilting the boat to one side allowing the bottom to be scraped with barnacles and mollusks. The process prevented the ship from becoming infected with shipworms, also known as sea termites. As you may have guessed, table manners were not a big priority for pirates. The famous Captain George Roberts once described a pirate crew he saw during a meal as "like a kennel," snatching and trapping each other's supplies. On a ship, food had to be resistant to decay. So the selection tended to be pretty basic. Dried meats, hard pasta and alcohol were common. But they weren't exactly a balanced diet.

Therefore, pirates frequently supplemented those staple foods with turtles, birds, and any other protein sources they could find. A wide variety of products can be mixed into a stew, such as garlic, olives, eggs, cabbage, fish, oysters and even snakes. Condiments and spices were also likely to be included in the mix. But they were not always available. The sum total of all this was a diet largely lacking in nutrients, particularly vitamin C, which led to outbreaks of scurvy. And the effects were extreme. A marine surgeon named William Clowes wrote that "the gums become 'broken to the root of the teeth themselves,' the cheeks become 'hard and swollen,' the breath becomes acrid, and finally the teeth become loose and fall out." Well Isn't that a nice picture?

On both pirate and non-pirate ships, scurvy was common for centuries. By some estimates, more than 2 million sailors died of scurvy between the 15th and 18th centuries alone. An unknown surgeon on a 16th-century English ship recorded his own symptoms after contracting the disease. He described rotting gums, oozing putrid black blood, and legs that became black and gangrenous. He was so bad that he was forced to cut his skin to release this black, disgusting blood. He also apparently had to cut his gums, which he described as livid and growing over his teeth. As he pushed away the rotting flesh, black blood gushed from his mouth.

And if you think the story can't get any worse, then prepare yourself, because the next thing he did was rinse his mouth and teeth with the closest thing to an antiseptic he had at the time: his own urine. Hmm. Did he find out what? Somewhere, R. Kelly just likes this video. Anyway, scurvy was bad. But at least it was possible to recover from it. The same cannot always be said for other conditions, such as dysentery. Fluxes and fevers were also common due to putrid water, close borders, and general lack of hygiene. Piracy was incredibly risky. That is why ships had to be prepared to deal with all types of medical emergencies.

To do this, some pirate crews brought their own surgeons. The services of these professionals were often obtained by force. Otherwise, novices might be tasked with learning surgical procedures. One of those ship surgeons was John Devin, who worked for the infamous Captain Henry Every. He stayed with Every even after the English Privy Council officially proclaimed him a pirate in 1696. Two years later, Devin himself will be tried for piracy and acquitted. Archibald Murray was a ship surgeon who served under three different pirate captains, beginning with Captain Howell Davis in 1718. In 1723, Cole Wyeth was the surgeon on a ship commanded by the pirate Edward Low.

Wyatt served under Low and then continued after the original captain took the ship. In 1717, the famous Edward Teach, also known as "Blackbeard", seized a ship called La Concorde, which he would rename Queen Anne's Revenge. He carried three surgeons whom Blackbeard was holding captive. Presumably they were still aboard the ship a year later when she attacked Charleston, South Carolina. It is unclear how often pirates shaved their faces. But there is evidence that surgeons on pirate ships may also serve as barbers. The surgery often requires shaving an area of ​​the body, which would give the surgeon experience using the razor on a ship that rocks and sways with the motion of the sea.

A 17th century treatise called The Surgeon's Mate even described ship surgeons having multiple razors and scissors of various sizes precisely so they could cut hair. Being a pirate was a dangerous way to make a living. Accidents, fights, and battles were common and likely resulted in injuries, burns, illnesses, and all other types of medical problems. As such, a pirate ship typically had a medicine chest containing salves, salves, and instruments to perform surgeries, such as amputations. When the wreckage of Blackbeard's famous ship, Queen Anne's Revenge, was found off the coast of North Carolina, his medicine cabinet still contained scissors, mortars and pestles for preparing ingredients, as well as screws that were likely used for bloodletting.

According to Captain Charles Johnson's famous, though dubious, textbook The General History of Pirates, Blackbeard acquired these medical supplies through extortion. The book claims that the legendary pirate attacked every ship in Charleston, South Carolina, until the government finally agreed to give him the medical supplies he needed. Diseases such as syphilis were common at sea. And when Blackbeard's medicine cabinet was unearthed, one of the instruments found inside was a urethral syringe used to treat that condition. Fever, smallpox and measles were also quite common conditions. There were insects and vermin everywhere. John Esquemeling, from Henry Morgan's ship of the late 17th century, recorded mosquitoes of various sizes, including some that are no larger than a mustard seed and bite into flesh so hard that they create small ulcers.

As fun as it sounds, it was just the beginning. Lice, fleas, rats and even bees could infest boats. In such cases, health professionals of the time were likely to recommend fumigation. Other daily risks can include dehydration, sunburn, heat exhaustion, hypothermia, frostbite, and of course any wounds and trauma caused by swords, gunshots, and cannonballs. Do you think you would have enjoyed the pirate life? Let us know in the comments below. And while you're at it, check out some of these other videos from our Strange History.