Mariners' Maladies: Examining Medical Equipage From The Queen Anne's Revenge Shipwreck

Summary

Treating the sick and injured of a sea-bound community on shipboard was challenging in the best of times. Chronic and periodic illnesses, wounds, amputations, toothaches, burns and other indescribable maladies of the crew, captain, and enslaved cargo had to be treated. Evidence of the tools used to heal the sick and wounded has been recovered from shipwreck 31CR314, identified as Blackbeard's Queen Anne's Revenge (formerly La Concorde, a French slaver). Excavations by NC Department of Cultural Resources have been on-going since the wreck was located in 1996. The medical equipage found so far includes galley pots, syringes, clysters, a blood porringer, a mortar and pestle, and apothecary weight sets. Traveling the inter-continental boundaries of the Atlantic Ocean, sources and uses of these unique artifacts will be examined along with the patients, doctors, and shipboard medicine of the 17th and ealry 18th centuries' Golden Age of Piracy.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2015   •
• Mercantilism and Hegemony; the crossroads of maritime ventures in the Americas from the 16th to 18th centuries

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Spatial Coverage

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 99