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Dead Reckoning

The 18th century misadventures of HMS Wager and her reluctant crew

Humans, it turns out, are among the few species on Earth that cannot synthesize vitamin C; but at that time the Royal Navy was unaware of this biological shortcoming, and they had not yet discovered the scurvy-thwarting power of citrus that would eventually earn British sailors the nickname ‘limeys.’ Among the deceased was Captain Dandy Kidd of Wager. His Majesty’s Shipwreck Wager was quite immobilized, but she was equipped with four smaller craft intended for various operations between ships and shore: the flat-bottomed barge for navigating shallow water, the cutter and yawl for small groups, and the longboat for much larger away missions. Those of us that survived had almost ground to envy the deceased, who were thereby freed from the horrid circumstances under which we groaned, tortured with hunger and thirst, catching at the most nauseous things that could any way appease the rage of these cruel appetites, and an abhorrence even to ourselves by reason of stench and vermin.

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