Posted on 10/01/2013 9:24:28 PM PDT by Jack Hydrazine
-snip-
In reality, Smeerenburg was usually abandoned at the end of each season, though by the 1630s, years of vicious competition led Dutch whalers to try something novel: leave a crew of volunteers to overwinter at Smeerenburg, both to be on hand to protect more expensive equipment that could be left behind, and in order to get the whaling station up and running as soon as possible the following spring. And so in 1632 seven men were left in Smeerenburg to wait out the winter.
It did not go well. The Dutch volunteers quickly succumbed to the “polar night disease,” as it was sometimes known—scurvy. As related by Kenneth C. Carpenter, in his A History of Scurvy and Vitamin C, “They were left on September 11, and already by November 24, ‘the scurvy began to appear among them; they searched very earnestly for green herbs, bears and foxes, but could find none,’ nor did they have any success later. Several of them took ‘potions against scurvy,’ but three of them died in mid-January, and the rest were too weak even to try to hunt for fresh meat. All were dead by the end of February.”
We tend to think now of scurvy as mainly a punch line, if anything—“scurvy-ridden rats” is the kind of popular pirate epithet that appears in even the most G-rated family fare. Partly this is because now, fully understanding its mechanism, it seems a particularly ridiculous problem. But ask anyone whose suffered from it: it is a singularly horrid and terrible way to die. In 1602, a Father Antonio de la Ascension chronicled with particularly gruesome detail the onset of the disease in his party while in California:
-snip-
The backstory behind this gruesome means of death lies in the body’s inability to produce collagen. Vitamin C is necessary for the hydroxylation of proline and lysine, and without these collagen can no longer form. Collagen, in turn, is necessary to keep your body together, and as scurvy advances joint pain and swelling accompany wounds that do not heal or even re-open and begin to bleed again. (Trapped in the Arctic in 1832, explorer John Ross began to bleed from wounds he’d received decades earlier in the Napoleonic Wars.) Your teeth come loose from your gums, because your body literally can no longer hold itself together.
Well after De la Ascension’s voyage, scurvy continued to be little-understood—in his case, symptoms abated once the missionaries gave up and sailed for home, and while it was cactus they acquired from indigenous Mexicans that probably saved them, De la Ascension came to believe there was something poisonous in California’s air itself. Known also as mal de terre—“land disease”—all manner of hypotheses for its cause were floated. Pyrard, who thought it contagious, blamed “great length of voyage, want of cleanliness, sea air, the corruption of water and victuals,” to name a few (though to his credit he did recognize citrus fruits as an easy cure-all). Other opinions blamed excessive amounts of salted meat and fish, “which heat the blood and corrupt the internal parts.” In 1593, Sir Richard Hawkins suggested as possible cures burning tar on the deck of the ship or sprinkling it with vinegar, and to keep the crew occupied with some “bodily exercise of work, of agility, of pastimes, of dancing, of use of arms.” Hawkins, too, understood that citrus helped abate scurvy, but went on to plead for a better understanding of the disease: “I wish that some learned man would write of it, for it is the plague of the sea, and the spoil of mariners.” (more at the link.)
Preppers’ PING!!
Hat tip to Jack Hydrazine for the heads up!
Seaweed contains Vitamin C.
Sounds like it’s not far from haggis.
Have no Fear, the Man of Bronze is here.
Peace will come to all who find
Doc Savage,
Doc Savage.
He's a friend to all Mankind.
Pure of heart and mind.
Who will make crime disappear?
Doc Savage
Doc Savage!
Bookmarking for future reference. Thanks for posting!
They ate the stomach contents of the caribou they killed.
Dark leafy greens and herbs are high in Vit C. Most people can grow these nearly year round outside or inside in a window. Organ meats is another good source. There’s no reason for anyone to get scurvy on dry land.
Vitamin C...all mammals except primates (including man) and guinea pigs make their own Vitamin C. Today this is well known. Rose Hips is just another source of Vitamin C. 60 mg is the RDA for Vitamin C, barely enough to ward off scurvy. That is a mediocre amount.
Dr Linus Pauling and many others who have promoted ‘massive dosing’ with Vitamin C are correct. Vitamin C, along with Vitamin D, will protect us all from most diseases that we consider ‘scourges’. This includes Cardiovascular Disease.
Dr Thomas Levy, MD, a cardiologist, calls cardiovascular disease a form of scurvy. It is curable and preventable with adequate dosing of Vitamin C.
Correct.
Also, each year I grow cabbage and broccoli, both of which are fairly high in Vit C. The hard part would be finding younger, tender edible parts during the slow season.
Radishes are also good, the advantage there being they are extremely easy to germinate, and the entire plant is edible.
Actually, I like the green seed pods as much as the radish globes themselves!
I am pleased to be of service
We were just discussing this the other day on the weekly garden thread.
Many of the rose varieties have pretty small rose hips, but the plant Rosa Rugosa has very large-olive size rose hips.
In addition, it can provide a very nice impenatrable hedge to surround your property and keep out all manner of critters.LOL
One of the first things I did on my quest for self relient source of food was to plant some Rosa Rugosa.
I harvest Rose hips in the fall, dry them, and harvest enough to get me through winter. I also grow a few lemons indoors on a dwarf lemon tree than blooms year around.
In the spring, one of the first plants for vitamin c to look for is dandelion greens.
Raintree Nurseries in the Pacific Northwest specializes in hard to find edible landscaping. A bit pricey, but well worth the quality and selection.
Look familiar?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_rugosa
It is considered an invasive plant species according to this website.
http://www.eddmaps.org/ipane/ipanespecies/shrubs/Rosa_rugosa.htm
What is considered adequate? Any websites with that info available?
I want to thank everyone for all of the great replies on this thread.
BTTT
Also yummy fresh on a dark lettuce leaf salad, accompanied by balsamic vinegrette (or however you spell it).
Altho to me, salad is just a delivery agent for the dressing, LOL.
The wild rose hips in my area are prime about 2 weeks before Christmas. But I only get to claim what the deer can’t reach, hanging over a deep bank cut of a creek. Darn wildlife loves ‘em too!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.