
The Manila Galleons: Cruel Ships of Prosperity (2016) - Thevet
https://aeon.co/essays/the-manila-galleons-that-oceaneered-for-plague-and-profit
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jdkee
"Disease was exacerbated by a primitive view of cleanliness among Europeans of
the age. Though latrines that cantilevered over the ocean were available on
some galleons, many sailors didn’t use them, instead shitting into the ship’s
bilge, or even in the general hold. In part, Careri tells us, that was because
of the incessant, brutal cold. But this indifference was widespread. The
French sailor François Pyrard de Laval wrote in 1610 that typical Portuguese
ships around India were ‘mighty foul and stink withal; the most men not
troubling themselves to go on deck for their necessities’.

The lack of basic hygiene on ships illustrates the vast gap between early
modern knowledge of geography and sailing on the one hand, and of the internal
frontiers of the human body on the other. It was well-known that the world was
round, part of the basis for the galleons’ amazing navigational leap. But few
educated Europeans of the 16th and 17th century had more than the vaguest
concepts of nutrition, infection, germs or the role of cleanliness in health.
Most ships, even as late as the 18th century, relied for rudimentary medical
help on a multitasking barber whose most effective tools were his enema
syringe and tooth-puller."

Given my upbringing with 20th Century American standards of fresh water,
toilet and bathing facilities, I could not imagine the sheer amount of filth
experienced by these sailors and travelers. What an immune system the
survivors must have had.

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9nGQluzmnq3M
Now imagine being the cargo on a slave ship, which had similar if not worse
conditions, but you're shackled by hands and/or feet and you can't even move
for months on end.

[https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/large106661.html](https://www.bl.uk/learning/timeline/large106661.html)

The diagram above shows how they were _supposed_ to be packed: as the text
explains, the ship actually had twice as many, so they were fitted in lying on
their sides or double-stacked. The "flux" mentioned in the text is dysentery
(bloody diarrhea), which coated the decks they slept on.

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Ftuuky
Reminds me of this excellent article:

[https://multimedia.scmp.com/culture/article/spanish-
galleon/...](https://multimedia.scmp.com/culture/article/spanish-
galleon/chapter_01.html)

