Scurvy Was Far Deadlier Than Most People Realize
It killed a shocking number of people
5 min readJan 8, 2022
Today, scurvy is often mentioned alongside pirates and oranges. Modern medicine now knows that scurvy is the result of dangerously low levels of vitamin C. The most common victims of scurvy were the crews of sailing ships that would be at sea for weeks or months at a time.