- Lacking the aid of modern medical knowledge, life aboard ship during the Age of Sail was fraught with illness and disease. This important contribution to naval history examines the health issues--from individual malnutrition to widespread epidemics--affecting seamen from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The work chronicles both the struggles of seamen to survive these daunting health hazards and the roles of the doctors who sought to keep them alive and healthy. It is an indisputable but often overlooked fact that without the work of "sea surgeons" it would have been impossible for crews to navigate the waters that led to successful land discoveries and to win sea battles that drew the map of the world. Until now, the story of maritime doctors and their contributions to both nautical medicine and historical development has been little known. Dr. Zachary Friedenberg, a surgeon and prolific writer on medical topics, changes this by presenting us with a well-researched and thorough examination of the subject. Special features include, among others, the death of thousands of seamen from scurvy and the three-hundred-year effort to overcome it; the health problems resulting from the enforced voyage of hundreds of thousands of African natives to North and South America; the struggle to provide medical care to a new Navy during the American Revolution; and the critical role played by disease and its control during sea battles. This fascinating book is sure to attract everyone interested in the history of medicine, nautical history, and cultural studies.