Note (return) — Chapter XIV · VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY CAPTAIN GEORGE ANSON, IN THE YEARS 1740-1744.1 (continued 2)
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Our first care after mooring the ships was to get our sick men on shore; preparatory for which each ship was ordered by the commodore to erect two tents, one for the reception of the sick, and the other for the surgeon and his assistants. We sent eighty sick on shore from the Centurion, and I believe the other ships sent as many in proportion to the number of their hands. As soon as this necessary duty was performed, we scraped our decks, and gave our ship a thorough cleansing, then smoaked it between decks, and lastly washed every part with vinegar. These operations were extremely necessary for correcting the noisome stench on board, and destroying the vermin; for, from the number of our men and the heat of the climate, both these nuisances had increased upon us to a very loathsome degree, and, besides being most intolerably offensive, were doubtless in some sort productive of the sickness we had laboured under for a considerable time before our arrival at this island.1