The medical bequest of disaster at sea: Commodore Anson's circumnavigation 1740-44

Abstract

Anson's circumnavigation was characterised by his indomitable leadership which enabled men to triumph over medical and environmental disasters responsible for appalling suffering and loss of life. The medical bequest of the Anson voyage was not only the detailed descriptions of nutritional deficiency diseases in their various guises, but in the spirit of inquiry it generated, the recognition of a need for research and continuing postgraduate education and the requirement for evidence-based medicine. The controversy it aroused resounded until the twentieth century.