IN the age of sail, scurvy was the scourge of navies, merchant ships and any vessels on long voyages. Nowadays it hardly exists, but for a glimpse of its horrors read the first two pages of this book, the experience of a crewman on Commodore George Anson’s flagship Centurion in 1741.
Anson had been commanded by the British Admiralty to find and capture a Spanish ship that was making more or less regular voyages from South America to the Philippines laden with gold and silver. His expedition’s ships had around 2000 men on board when they left Portsmouth. About 200…
