[Sca-cooks] Lemons in Middle English

[James Prescott]

At 11:22 -0800 2005-02-08, Carole Smith wrote:
>  So would you say from your reading that Capt. Lancaster knew that 
> he had a scurvy cure with citrus or that he was trying to figure it 
> out?


I think he had a good idea, and probably learned it from someone else.
Who?  The Dutch?  That's my guess.

Even if he personally had some confidence in it, the idea was clearly
new and not widely accepted in English sailing circles.

After all, it was nearly 200 years before the British Navy officially
accepted citrus juices as a cure (and preventative) for scurvy.

Perhaps his subordinate captains refused his suggestion that they try
the juice?


Thorvald