What did sailors eat that gave them scurvy?

November 22, 2025 •

3 min read

Over two million sailors are estimated to have died from scurvy between the 16th and 18th centuries, a devastating illness caused by dietary deficiency. The specific food choices, often limited to non-perishable items, are the primary reason why sailors developed scurvy during long sea voyages.

Quick Summary

Sailors developed scurvy due to diets lacking fresh fruits and vegetables on long voyages. Their staples, such as hardtack, salt beef, and dried peas, were preserved to last months at sea but contained no vitamin C. This prolonged deficiency caused the debilitating illness.

Key Points

Limited Provisions: The core of a sailor's diet was non-perishable items like hardtack and salt-cured meat, which lacked essential vitamins due to processing for long-term storage.
Absence of Fresh Produce: Long voyages meant no access to fresh fruits and vegetables, the primary sources of vitamin C, leading to a critical nutritional deficiency.
Ineffective Cooking Methods: Any minimal vitamin C that might have existed in rations was destroyed by extensive boiling and cooking methods used on board ships.
Slow Adoption of Cures: The solution—citrus fruits—was known but took decades to be widely adopted by naval authorities due to cost, bureaucracy, and a misunderstanding of the disease's cause.
High Mortality Rate: Scurvy was responsible for more deaths among sailors than all other maritime hazards combined during the Age of Sail.
James Lind's Experiment: In one of the first clinical trials, naval surgeon James Lind demonstrated in 1747 that citrus fruits were an effective cure for scurvy, though his findings were initially ignored by the establishment.

The Scourge of Scurvy and the Seafaring Diet

For centuries, scurvy was the greatest threat to mariners, causing more deaths at sea than combat, storms, and shipwrecks combined. Its origin, a simple lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid), was a profound mystery for generations, leading to horrific symptoms like spongy, bleeding gums, weakened joints, and extreme fatigue. The source of this widespread suffering was a basic flaw in the standard naval provisions, which were designed for longevity, not nutritional completeness.

Staples of the Sailor's Table

The traditional naval diet was built around a core of durable, non-perishable foods that could survive months or even years in a ship's hold without spoiling. The reliance on these preserved rations, combined with a total absence of fresh produce, created the perfect conditions for scurvy to flourish.

The Big Three: Hardtack, Salt Pork, and Salt Beef

The foundation of a sailor's meal was typically a rotation of these three preserved items.

Hardtack: A simple, dense biscuit made from flour, water, and salt, hardtack was baked multiple times to remove all moisture, making it incredibly resistant to spoilage. While a reliable source of carbohydrates, it was notoriously hard—earning it nicknames like "tooth dullers" and "worm castles" when infested with pests. Crucially, it offered no vitamin C.
Salt Pork and Salt Beef: Fresh meat was a luxury that spoiled quickly, so beef and pork were heavily salted and packed in barrels of brine for preservation. This process, while effective, stripped the meat of any nutritional value it might have had. The resulting product was so salty it required soaking before cooking.
Dried Peas and Beans: As a source of protein and bulk, dried legumes were a common provision. They were often boiled into a thick porridge known as 'pease pudding'. Like the other preserved foods, any minute traces of vitamin C were lost during processing and cooking.

The Water and Drink Problem

Water quality was a constant issue on long voyages. Barrels of drinking water could become foul and stagnant over time. To combat this, and as part of a daily ration, sailors were given alcohol, such as beer or grog (a mixture of rum and water). While this provided a safer alternative to contaminated water, it was devoid of vitamins.

Why Didn't They Just Eat Fresh Food?

The answer was a combination of logistical challenges, ignorance, and stubborn tradition. Fresh fruits and vegetables, containing the essential vitamin C, would spoil in a matter of weeks, far shorter than the duration of an oceanic crossing. Even when new remedies were proposed, such as by naval surgeon James Lind in 1753 after his now-famous clinical trial with citrus, the naval bureaucracy took decades to adopt them widely.

Comparison of Sailor Provisions vs. Scurvy-Preventing Foods


Food Type	Sailor's Provisions (Contributing to Scurvy)	Scurvy-Preventing Foods (Missing from Diet)
Staples	Hardtack, salt pork, salt beef	Fresh fruits (citrus, berries), fresh vegetables (potatoes, cabbage)
Processing	Cured, salted, and dried to extreme for longevity	Consumed fresh or raw, minimal processing
Vitamins	None, especially no vitamin C after processing	High levels of vitamin C (Ascorbic Acid)
Storage	Long-term in a ship's dry, unsanitary hold	Highly perishable, would spoil within weeks
Source	Land-based suppliers, preserved months in advance	Replenished regularly at port or gathered locally

Efforts to Find a Cure: Lind and Cook

While Lind's work was revolutionary, showing citrus fruits could prevent and cure scurvy, it was not immediately accepted. Captain James Cook, a great explorer, famously kept scurvy at bay on his voyages not just with citrus rob (a concentrated citrus juice), but by enforcing discipline and hygiene, and by forcing his crew to eat sauerkraut and other preserved, but still vitamin C-rich, vegetables. His success helped eventually push the Royal Navy toward official rations of lemon juice, though it took until 1795 to mandate this.

Conclusion

The simple, unchanging diet of preserved foods is precisely what left sailors vulnerable to scurvy. Their staple rations—hardtack, salt meat, and dried legumes—were a logistical solution to long-distance travel but a nutritional disaster. The absence of fresh, vitamin C-rich foods for months at a time caused a severe deficiency, leading to the painful symptoms of scurvy. While a few forward-thinking individuals understood the remedy, it took the weight of evidence and naval tragedy to overcome tradition and logistics, eventually eradicating the disease that once defined life at sea for so many.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sailors got scurvy primarily due to a severe lack of vitamin C in their diet during long sea voyages, as their provisions consisted almost entirely of non-perishable foods like hardtack and salted meat.

Yes, hardtack was a staple of the sailor's diet. It was a very hard, dense biscuit made from flour, water, and salt, designed to last for years without spoiling. It provided calories but no nutritional value to prevent scurvy.

Fresh food, particularly fruits and vegetables containing vitamin C, would spoil long before most ocean voyages were complete, especially before the advent of refrigeration.

In 1747, naval surgeon James Lind conducted a controlled experiment on 12 sailors with scurvy, giving different treatments to pairs. The pair given oranges and lemons showed a remarkable recovery, providing evidence that citrus cured the disease.

Yes, fresh lemons and limes were effective, but the adoption was inconsistent. The British Royal Navy started issuing citrus juice rations in 1795, which largely eliminated scurvy from their ranks, though sometimes poorly preserved lime juice with little vitamin C was used.

Captain James Cook was one of the first commanders to successfully prevent widespread scurvy on his voyages. He achieved this through strict hygiene and by ensuring his crew consumed fresh food and vitamin-rich items like sauerkraut whenever possible.

While rare in developed countries with access to varied diets, scurvy can still occur in cases of severe malnutrition, poverty, alcoholism, or very restrictive eating habits.