Scurvy on John Davis' voyage (1591-1593)

John Davis was one of Queen Elizabeth I’s chief navigators. During one of his sea voyages, many crew members developed symptoms consistent with scurvy. This document extracts the relevant textual sections and discusses their interpretation.In his authoritative book, “The History of Scurvy and Vitamin C”, Kenneth Carpenter claimed about the symptoms described on Davis’ voyage that “Obviously this disease was not scurvy”. Carpenter’s claim is refuted.