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Dec] SANTA SINTO — DIRECTIONS TO SHIP-MASTERS. 467 



on the following day we crossed a shoal of coral about four miles in 

 circumference, with from three to ten fathoms of water upon it. This 

 shoal is situated in latitude 7° 31' N., long. 144° 59' E. We now 

 made the best of our way to the Strait of St. Barnardino, and were 

 within the entrance of the strait on the 9th of December. 



December IQth. — On Friday, the 10th of December, we touched at 

 Santa Sinto, where we obtained a supply of provisions, of which we 

 stood very much in need ; as for the last twenty days we had been on 

 an allowance of one-third. It is truly astonishing, that from the time 

 of leaving Manilla up to the present date, only one man on board had 

 been ill, out of a crew of eighty-five men, confined in a small vessel, 

 and all the time in a very warm climate. I attribute this extraordinary 

 healthiness almost entirely to the strict attention paid to cleanliness, 

 and avoiding unnecessary exposure, on board the Antarctic. 



I would earnestly recommend to all ship-masters, on a long voyage, 

 to keep a special eye to this subject. The crew should be compelled 

 to attend particularly to this important concern, as respects their per- 

 sons, cooking vessels, wearing apparel, bedding, &c. When the bilge- 

 water becomes the least offensive, a part of the crew should be em- 

 ployed in pouring pure sea-water into the forepart of the vessel, while 

 others are pumping it out, until the nuisance is totally abated. This 

 simple measure will completely nullify or neutralize a very prolific 

 source of disease. The men should never be permitted to sleep in 

 their wet clothes, nor on deck, in very warm or very cold climates ; as 

 this has a tendency to promote the scurvy, when off soundings ; while 

 on soundings, when the dews are heavy, it engenders fever. Neither 

 should they be allowed to sleep too much when the weather is hot ; 

 for that relaxes and enervates the whole system, and renders the body 

 liable to many dangerous and often fatal diseases. In warm climates 

 they should change their clothes twice a week. 



Ships on long voyages should always be supplied with a liberal 

 quantity of dried apples, to be distributed to the seamen three times a 

 week. They should also be carefully furnished with a due quantity 

 of vinegar, which should be given to the men with their food three times 

 a day ; besides a spoonful each, every morning, for rinsing their mouths. 

 Switchel, or molasses and water, with a little vinegar in it, should be 

 served out to them once or twice a day, while at sea. Their meat, 

 before cooking, should be well soaked in sea-water, and the strictest 

 attention ought to be paid to the manner of its being served up after 

 cooking. The health of a ship's company depends in a great measure 

 on the character of the cook ; life and death are in his hands, and the 

 best of them require strict looking after. If personal cleanliness be 

 essential to health, how much more so must be the cleanliness of our 

 cookery ! A filthy, careless, ignorant cook is more dangerous than a 

 pestilence. This subject, I regret to say, is too much neglected by 

 ship-masters, some of whom seem to think that seamen may be fed 

 like so many swine ; and that they are merely fed at all in order to 

 give them strength to work. I know them to be men; and the best 

 of men when properly treated. 



One word more respecting vinegar. The water which we drink at 



Gg2 



