How disease losses increased recruiting pressure

Sudden crew shortages could arise from illness as well as wartime expansion. Before about the 1750s, ships could lose half or more of their sailors to illness, although losses varied greatly between ships. Officers whose ships suffered fewer losses supplied examples that others could copy when addressing scurvy. The family voyage records cited here associate lower losses with frequent fresh food, fruit juices or equivalents, and plentiful pickled vegetables. Whether the pickled vegetables helped mitigate scurvy remains speculation. Differences in victualling form part of the proposed explanation for why some ships needed more replacement sailors than others.