From ‘laudable pus’ to the bloody flux…surviving the Age of Sail

Public lecture by Lindl Lawton, Senior Curator, South Australian Maritime Museum

Fri 9 Sep 2016

6:30pm – 8:00pm

Museum of Geraldton

Cholera on the Bowsprit. Artist F. Graetz published in Puck, July 18 1883

Join Lindl Lawton, Senior Curator from the South Australian Maritime Museum as she provides an overview of Rough Medicine: life and death in the age of sail.

Sickness could render a voyage under sail anything from uncomfortable to utterly horrific. Small pox, yellow fever, typhus, typhoid, pneumonia, seasickness and venereal disease were common companions. Disease spread rapidly in cramped quarters, drinking water was often polluted, food perished and new climates brought new ailments with few escaping a visit to the ship’s hospital.

Lindl unpacks 19th century concepts of disease, unpicks how health was negotiated on long sea voyages, and proffers some eye-watering insights into the surgeon’s kit of amputation knives, enema syringes, leeches, tinctures and powders, just some of the ship surgeon’s go-to cures.

Rough Medicine: life and death in the age of sail will be open for viewing from 6.30pm.

The public lecture will start promptly at 7.00pm

Numbers will be limited. Bookings are essential, please email details to Geraldton.Museum@museum.wa.gov.au

Cholera on the Bowsprit. Artist F. Graetz published in Puck, July 18 1883

Courtesy The Bert Hansen Collection, New York City