Drink - you will die out! Like the dinosaurs, the British sailors didn't listen …
“Fifteen people per dead man's chest. Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! Drink, and the devil will bring you to the end. … Yo-ho-ho, and a bottle of rum! - who does not know this wonderful, cheerful song! Here's just what we didn't know yet, and just found out, according to the results of a new study: poisoned rum really killed British sailors worse than musket shots! And not only pirates … Death took away all rum lovers without division into categories.
Researchers have found that lead, accumulated in rum when distilled through a lead coil, was the cause of death of many British sailors in the 18th century.
A team of archaeologists from Lakehead University examined 31 skeletons of British sailors exhumed from the Royal Naval Hospital cemetery in Antigua. Using X-ray fluorescence analysis, scientists proved that lead poisoning was the cause of the death of sailors, which was actively used at that time even in the manufacture of tableware. They received a lethal dose using rum, which was distilled using lead coils.
During the French Revolutionary Wars at the end of the 18th century, England sent its troops to capture the French colonies in the West Indies, as well as to hold positions in the Caribbean. These missions were accompanied by numerous losses, tens of thousands of people died from yellow fever and from poisoning. Scientists analyzed the exhumed skeletons of sailors to determine the cause of their death.
The results of X-ray fluorescence analysis showed that the sailors probably died from poisoning with lead salts. Skeletal bones have been found to have lead concentrations of up to 336 ppm, with a normal level of 5 to 30 ppm. In acute lead poisoning, pains in the abdomen, joints, convulsions, fainting occur. Lead can accumulate in the bones, causing their gradual destruction, concentrating in the liver and kidneys.
Lead has been known to mankind since antiquity and due to its ease of extraction and processing, it is often used in various areas of human life. In ancient Rome, even water pipes were made from lead, not knowing about the toxicity of the salts of this metal.
In the eighteenth century, English sailors drove rum using lead coils in the distillation cube instead of copper ones because of their greater availability. Naturally, not knowing about the possible dire consequences …
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It was the use of rum obtained in this way that caused their death. The rum was given to sailors for daily consumption.
