Part 19

In this state of things a consultation of the medical officers was held on the condition of the crew, the result of which was a recommendation that the ship should immediately proceed to Madeira, and if the fever received no check, that she should go on to England. In conformity with this advice, the whole of the crew, the sick as well as the healthy, were forthwith re-embarked, and the ship sailed from Boa Vista on the following day, namely, the 13th of September.

The sequel to this sad narrative shows that no improvement took place during the passage of the “Eclair” to Madeira, where she was refused pratique. She therefore proceeded next day on her voyage to England, and anchored off the Isle of Wight, at the Motherbank, on the 28th of September, having lost, since sailing from Boa Vista, 12 more of her crew. Thus in the short space of 37 days, that is, from the time when she anchored at Boa Vista on the 21st of August, till her arrival at the Motherbank on the 28th of September, there occurred no less than 90 attacks and 45 deaths, including the death of her excellent and devoted captain.

On her arrival in England the ship was put in quarantine, and remained under the direction of the Privy Council until the 31st of October.

On the day following her arrival, Dr Richardson proposed that the sick should be immediately removed to a wing of Haslar Hospital, to be appropriated exclusively for them; stating, that in his opinion, if the sick were placed in well-ventilated wards, with fresh bedding, and the other means of cleanliness afforded by an hospital, there would be no further risk to the attendants than would occur in wards set apart for cases of typhus fever.

To this advice, Sir William Pym objected, and instead of allowing the removal of the sick, he ordered the vessel, with the whole of her crew, to proceed from the Motherbank to the Foul Bill Quarantine Station at Standgate Creek, which place she did not reach until the afternoon of the 2nd of October, that is, four days after her arrival at the Motherbank, where they remained six days more before their removal into another vessel. Thus were all on board detained close prisoners in a pestilential atmosphere on the shores of their native land; their anticipations that at length they should quit the scene of such terrible sufferings, and of so many horrors, their hopes of life and health, totally destroyed. The consequence was, that within these ten days, five more deaths took place, nor was it until the Lords of the Admiralty declared their conviction that the only means of preserving the lives of the survivors of the crew would be the entire removal of every individual from this ill-fated ship, that they were permitted to quit it. Their removal took place on the 8th of October, after which event two more deaths occurred, one of them being that of the pilot who took the vessel from the Motherbank to Standgate Creek.

Footnote 32:

A striking contrast to this treatment of the crew of the “Eclair” is exhibited in the case of Her Majesty’s frigate, the “Arethusa,” which recently (Feb. 14, 1852) arrived at Plymouth from Lisbon, having on board cases of small-pox. Instead of putting the ship in quarantine, and confining the healthy in the same poisonous atmosphere with the sick, wiser counsels on this occasion prevailed, and more humane measures were adopted. On the advice of Dr Rae, Inspector of the Royal Naval Hospital, the sick, twelve in number, were immediately removed to that establishment, and of these two died, without any communication of the disease.

As already stated, official inquiries were directed to be made into the causes of this extraordinary mortality, from which it appears:—

That there was nothing peculiar in the disease itself. The medical and other officers of the ship, as well as the medical and other officers at Boa Vista, that is, all competent witnesses who actually saw the disease, concur in stating that it was nothing more than an aggravated form of the common endemic fever of the African coast; a view which is decisively confirmed by the original description of the disease in the medical journal of the ship, and by post-mortem examination.

In opposition to this generally-received opinion, however, Sir William Pym promulgated a statement that, in addition to the common African fever, the celebrated nova pestis of Dr Chisholm had been introduced into the vessel by a passenger taken on board at Sierra Leone; this disease being, as he represents, a fever sui generis, known by the name of the African, Bulam, Yellow, or Black Vomit Fever, attacking the human frame but once, and differing from the common remittent fever in being highly contagious.

That the doctrine on which Sir William Pym’s assertion rests met with little countenance from medical authorities is apparent from the statement of Sir William Burnett, who says:—

“The whole of this, as regards the peculiar properties of the disease, called by Sir William Pym, Bulam, &c., is a gratuitous assumption on his part, and, in my opinion, has no foundation in fact; and in my view of this part of the subject I am supported by nineteen-twentieths of the medical officers of both services, who are of opinion with myself that the more ardent form of Yellow Fever is a mere modification of the bilious remittent so extensively known all over the tropical regions.”

He adds: “The fever which prevailed in the ‘Eclair’ was unquestionably a remittent fever, originating in marsh miasmata, and the exposure of the men in boats during rainy weather.”

Dr King and Dr Stewart, in official Reports upon this case, state their concurrence with Sir William Burnett. Dr McWilliam, on the other hand, is of opinion that the disease, though primarily an endemic remittent of the African coast, became, from a series of causes, exalted into a concentrated remittent or Yellow Fever, and in that manner acquired new and peculiar properties, not primarily and essentially belonging to it.

With reference to this latter opinion, it may be observed that the Governor-General of the Cape de Verd Islands affirms, that not one of those who with a view to escape the pestilence emigrated to the different islands of the Archipelago, had the disease, or communicated it to others. According to the view of Dr McWilliam, therefore, this disease must have been of a very singular character, for in its origin at Shebar, it was not contagious, at Boa Vista it became contagious, while in the other islands of the Archipelago, wherever the sick or the uninfected fled, it again laid aside its contagious character, and did not spread to a single individual.

All the inquirers and reporters agree in stating that among the causes which concurred in communicating to this disease so extraordinary a degree of prevalence and mortality, the more important were the following:—

The employment of the crew uninterruptedly for an unusual length of time, including the sickly season, in a peculiarly unhealthy situation, and dangerous local duty.

The exposure of men, whose systems were impregnated with the seeds of disease imbibed in this unhealthy locality, to the risks of unrestricted liberty on shore, in the atmosphere of Sierra Leone, during the rainy season; one consequence of which freedom being their “inordinate indulgence in ardent spirits of the worst description.”

And subsequently, at Boa Vista, the confinement of the crew, the sick as well as the uninfected, in a place still more crowded, filthy, and unventilated than their quarters on board, instead of their dispersion in a pure atmosphere.

Some conception may be formed of the unfavourable circumstances under which the crew were placed at the Fort, from the account which, on personal inspection, Dr King gives of its sanitary condition, who states that from the absence of all means of cleansing, from the actual accumulation of filth, and from the impossibility under any circumstances of obtaining a free circulation of pure air, owing to the plan of the building, the atmosphere which the sick, the convalescent, and the healthy were compelled to breathe, day and night, must have been polluted and deleterious in the extreme; and that into a space incapable of affording sufficient accommodation for 50 men, upwards of 100, including the sick, were huddled together under a most oppressive heat, the thermometer ranging from 81° to 86°. This description is confirmed by the testimony of Dr Almeida, who states that having been requested by the Governor-General to go to the Fort and see the sick, “he found them so extremely crowded that he could hardly pass between them.”

The influence of such conditions in conducing to the virulence and spread of the disease has been already exemplified in what has been stated under the head “Localizing Causes;” but it must be added, that the crew had here also access to ardent spirits, in which both the sick and the uninfected indulged to still greater excess even than at Sierra Leone.

“It is with great regret,” says Sir William Burnett, “I have now to state on the best information, that while in this situation means were found to supply the sick as well as others with enormous quantities of ardent spirits, which were drunk with avidity and produced the most deleterious effects; indeed, I have reason to believe that some were absolutely killed by it as if by poison. Had there not been a fever already in existence, the intense heat (86° of Fahrenheit), the nature of the soil, and this dreadful intoxication together, would have been fully sufficient to have produced it, and one of the worst kind too, in which irritability of the stomach and dark-coloured vomiting would have been conspicuous symptoms.”

The actual result, as stated by Dr McWilliam, was that the accession to the sick-list and the mortality became much greater at this time than they had been at any previous period, and that from an endemic remittent of the African coast, the disease became exalted into a concentrated remittent or Yellow Fever.

Indubitable evidence further shows that, in addition to all these causes of disease, the crew when on board were constantly inhaling a poison generated in the ship itself. On a superficial examination the ship may have appeared clean, and Sir William Pym positively asserts that she was so; but there is conclusive evidence that this appearance was fallacious.

From the records of the Medical Department of the Navy have been extracted the following decisive statement with reference to this point, by Captain Simpson, late of the “Rolla:”—

“In June, 1845, being then in command of the ‘Rolla,’ I went on board the ‘Eclair’ off Shebar River. Commander Estcourt reported to me that he had sent a boat up the Sherborough River, and that the crew, during night, were exposed to heavy rain and much lightning, and were sick: some deaths had occurred on board. In the early part of July I went to Sierra Leone for supplies; the ‘Eclair’ was there; the vessel was anchored close to the shore; and I advised her Commander to move her further out, which he did. There seemed much excitement amongst the crew; some liberty had been given them, and drunkenness and sickness were the consequence. Wood was received on board for fuel in lieu of coals. This wood was green, as I understood at Sierra Leone, and very unhealthy to burn.”

This fact is substantiated by the log of the “Eclair,” which shows that from July 16th to the 19th inclusive, the crew were employed at Sierra Leone in wooding.

The influence of a quantity of greenwood recently taken on board a ship navigating the tropical seas, in producing destructive fever, is shown in the most striking manner by the history of the “Regalia,” and by that of the “Vestal.”