Age Of Discovery Essay

588 Words3 Pages

During the Age of Discovery, sailors’ lives on sea voyages were rough. A lot of things we’re discovered in this type of age including new land. An introduction to new ships was introduced which made longer voyages possible that we’re not possible before. All though that the Age of Discovery was filled with lots of exploration and sailing it was also very dangerous and not for the faint of heart. The sailors lives we’re very poor because a lot of sailors have died to a disease called scurvy which is a lack of vitamin C. In the life of a sailor on the ship their diet consisted of bad food that had no vitamin C in them to help with the scurvy. The food that the sailors had to eat was hard tack, and salted meats. “The officers, who generally came …show more content…

They would rather not care about the food and use the room for their precious cargo to make more of a profit. The ship had very cramped conditions that had led to infection and disease. “An increase in the number of decks and men and the amount of supplies inevitably translated into cramped sleeping and living conditions for the crew, poor ventilation, and a subsequent increase in infectious diseases and respiratory conditions.” Not having enough space for food meant that it would be very cramped in the ship the sailors we’re extremely close together and that led to infection for the sailors. The sailors also didn’t have much of a proper place to sleep so they had to sleep on hammocks. In my opinion I think that the sailors we’re treated very unfairly. “Astonishingly, preventives and remedies for scurvy during these years we’re largely ignored” I believe if people would have believed the remedies then scurvy would have not caused so many deaths. The ships that have used the remedies to cure scurvy we’re much more successful in their voyages and had accomplished way more than the other ships that had not used the cure for scurvy. I think that higher up officials we’re too greedy and focused more on making a profit then having healthy crew