“The duty in boats up African rivers involves considerable risk at any
time of the year, but it can never be practised in the rainy season
without endangering the health and lives of all who are employed, and
such were evidently the sad consequences of the boat expeditions of the
‘Eclair.’”
The crew, according to Mr Maconchy, in addition to this dangerous
service, and the dreariness and monotony of the situation, were exposed
to another depressing agency, “from seeing the prizes of other ships
passing frequently to Sierra Leone, whilst they considered themselves
out of the reach of such good fortune.”
Another cause was probably in operation even at this time, namely, the
foul condition of the ship, as will hereafter appear.
Under these circumstances, fever broke out on board the ship, and proved
fatal to ten of the crew; eight of the ten deaths being considered by
the medical officers as directly consequent on the boating expeditions.
Though there were other and severe cases of sickness on board, these
deaths appear to include the whole of the ship’s mortality during her
stay at Sherboro, a period, as has been stated, of above four months.
In the month of July the “Eclair” left this station, returned to Sierra
Leone, and anchored in the harbour, where she appears to have remained
13 days. This happened to be the rainy season. The crew went on shore,
where several of them remained at night unable to reach the ship from
being in a state of helpless intoxication.
The consequences were soon apparent. While the ship remained in the
harbour, fever again broke out on board with great violence, and
continued without intermission during this and the following month. In
this sickly state she again left Sierra Leone, proceeded northward in
company with another ship, the “Albert,” and anchored in the Gambia on
the 10th of August “(one of the most unhealthy months at that place),”
where she remained until the 15th. All this time, the fever steadily
increasing, she arrived on the 21st of August at Boa Vista. She had now
lost, since leaving Sherboro, 13 more of her crew, making in all, from
the first outbreak of the disease at Sherboro, 37 attacks and 23 deaths;
that is, 1 in 6 of the crew had died.
On anchoring in the harbour of Boa Vista, pratique was at once offered
to her commander, Captain Estcourt, but he replied that he could not
think of accepting it until he had communicated the state of his vessel
to the authorities on shore. After some deliberation the
Governor-General consented to the landing of the ship’s company, in the
hope that the formidable disease, by which so many had already perished,
and so many others were still placed in imminent danger, might be
checked. Accordingly the crew, both the healthy and the sick, were sent
to a Fort on an islet a mile distant from the town (Porto Sal Rey), and
the officers were lodged in the town itself. This took place on the 31st
of August.
The hope of benefiting the crew by the change of their quarters from the
ship to the land was not realized. On the contrary, the sickness
continued to increase with so much virulence that, at the end of the
third week after the arrival of the ship at Boa Vista, no fewer than 60
fresh cases were added to the sick list, and some deaths took place
nearly every day.
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.[32]
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.”[33]
Footnote 33:
For these cases see the Second Report on Quarantine, pp. 64, 299.
Further evidence will be found in the Medical Department of the Navy to
show “that the hold of the ‘Eclair’ was in a pestiferous state;” and Dr
King states, that long after the people left the ship in England, and
when the engines were removed, mud, some inches deep, was found under
the flooring.
“I should scarcely have noticed the above circumstance,” he says, “but
for some remarkable occurrences which took place in the same vessel at a
subsequent period, which confirmed me in the opinion I had previously
formed that the origin and continuance of the fever on board depended
solely on local causes.
“The ‘Rosamond,’ formerly the ‘Eclair,’ was commissioned at Woolwich on
the 5th of November, 1846, for the Cape of Good Hope station, but none
of the former crew rejoined the ship. During the time of fitting out,
four cases of typhus fever occurred, and were sent to the hospital,
where two of them died, but it is necessary to mention that typhus was
prevalent at Woolwich at the time. The steamer left England for the Cape
on the 23rd of February, 1847. Three days after sailing, one of the men
was affected with slight febrile symptoms, and he continued more or less
indisposed for a number of days, but occasionally felt so well that he
returned to his work. After the ship entered the tropics, however, the
disease began to assume a new and alarming character; and when off the
Island of St Nicholas, and almost in sight of Boa Vista, the man died,
having had for two days previous black vomit and other characteristic
symptoms of Yellow Fever. Within a few days afterwards the ‘Rosamond’
arrived at Ascension, where I was then stationed; and Commander Foot
having communicated to Captain Hutton, the superintendent of the island,
every particular respecting the illness and death of the seaman, I was
ordered, with Dr Sloane, the surgeon of the hospital, to make a report
on the case, and at the same time to suggest measures for the benefit of
the ship without endangering the health of the people on the island.
Having obtained from Dr Slight, surgeon of the ‘Rosamond,’ every
information relative to his late patient, we stated our opinion that the
disease the man died from was sporadic Yellow Fever. * * * On the
following morning I went on board with the view of learning something to
enable me to form an opinion as to the sanitary condition of the ship,
and for the purpose also of inspecting the sick, as the surgeon informed
me he had then a suspicious case, with symptoms of a low kind of fever.
I had barely time to take a cursory view of the after parts of the ship,
when my attention was called to the patients, who were all mustered in
the steerage, and I found the man the doctor had alluded to in such a
precarious state that I recommended him to be sent on shore immediately.
The only other severe case was that of a supernumary lad, who was taken
ill the same morning, but the indications of a low malignant fever were
so apparent even at that early stage, as to induce me to express my
opinion to the surgeon that he would not probably survive 24 hours. As
it was most desirable to prevent a panic among the ship’s company, I
went on shore to consult with Captain Hutton, and make arrangements for
their reception. * * * The patients themselves attributed their illness
to foul air in the forepart of the ship; one of them said he suffered so
much from an abominable stench in the boatswain’s storeroom, that he
represented the circumstance and obtained permission to cut a hole in
the floor, which exposed to view a considerable quantity of soft mud,
and five or six buckets full of it mixed with decayed shavings, and
emitting an offensive odour, were removed at the time.
“It appears then, that besides an unusual number sleeping in the
fore-cockpit, some of them at least had been exposed to a morbific
miasma, exhaled from a festering mass of filth in the bottom of that
part of the ship. The quantity of mud, no doubt, was small in comparison
with what had accumulated when the vessel arrived at Spithead from the
coast of Africa, yet the malaria eliminated from that small and
circumscribed focus was equally virulent in its operation, and produced
the same disease in a few who were placed within the sphere of its
influence.”
Such is a brief narrative of the circumstances connected with this ship
and her crew.
But it has been alleged that while the landing of the crew of the
“Eclair,” at Boa Vista, afforded no benefit to the ship’s company, it
inflicted a grievous evil on the inhabitants of the island; that several
individuals in contact, or close proximity with the sick, became
affected with the same kind of fever; that from these individuals the
malady spread to others with whom they came in contact, and from these
again to others, as from so many centres of contagion, until the disease
became general over the island, thus affording a positive instance of
the importation of epidemic disease. The alleged facts on which these
representations rest are the following:—
It is stated, that during the occupancy of the Fort by the crew, there
was a small Portuguese guard stationed there; that this guard was
several times relieved; that at the time when the “Eclair” left the
island, the guard consisted of one negro and two European soldiers;
that within three days after the sailing of the “Eclair” both
Europeans were attacked with fever similar to that from which the crew
of the “Eclair” had suffered; that the negro soldier, who, with his
comrade—the man sent from Boa Vista to nurse the two Europeans—on
returning from the small island to Porto Sal Rey, had been—“as a
matter of precaution”—“restricted for [‘about 8’ or] 17 days to the
occupation of a small hut at the northern end” of the town, was
afterwards attacked,—though not confined to bed until the day
following his return to barracks; and that a woman (Anna Gallinha),
who lived next door to this hut, was the first person who was attacked
with fever in the town. It is further stated that a man (Pathi), who
had been a labourer on board the “Eclair,” was also attacked with
fever, according to one account, on the day after the “Eclair” sailed;
but according to another account, on the third day after that event.
Such are the alleged facts, and the only ones bearing directly on the
communication of a specific contagion by the crew of the “Eclair,”
collected by Dr M‘William by personal inquiries on the spot; and these,
in his opinion, present a chain of evidence sufficient to establish a
positive instance of the importation of epidemic disease.
With reference, however, to these inquiries, it has been already stated
that they were not instituted until several months after the departure
of the “Eclair” from Boa Vista;—the only regular practitioner on the
island (Dr Kenny) who could have given authentic and trustworthy
information respecting the nature and progress of the disease, had
died;—the witnesses examined by Dr M‘William, poor and ignorant, gave
their evidence, hearsay and otherwise, in the loosest possible
manner;—their statements as to dates and occurrences, alleged to have
happened several months before the inquiry took place, were received
implicitly, without examination into the correctness of their answers
and the credibility of their testimony;—all the witnesses of this class
appear to have spoken under the influence of the strongest feeling of
self-interest, with a view to establish a claim to pecuniary
compensation should they be able to make out a case against the
“Eclair,” in which expectation they were not disappointed, since the sum
of £1000 was eventually granted by Great Britain for the benefit of the
inhabitants;—and to this motive may probably be ascribed the highly
coloured and exaggerated statements put forth by these people on the
re-appearance of fever in the following year.
Taking the facts, however, precisely as they are represented in the
Report of Dr M‘William, they do not, as the proof of the allegation in
question requires, present a clear and palpable chain of evidence,
connecting as cause and effect the fever of the ship with the epidemic
on shore; but, on the contrary, there is not a single link undoubtedly
connecting the one with the other.