Accession Number

1986.008.0132

Creation Date

circa 1620

Exhibition Label

Case Caption (2023):

The Surgeon

Both Cecilio de Ribera aboard the Nuestra Señora de Atocha and Juan de Mercado on the Santa Margarita were ship’s surgeons. At this time, a surgeon was often a barber who had acquired a few additional skills rather than a man with medical training.

He would have few medicines to offer. His resources would include basilicum powder (made from basil) to speed the healing of a wound and poultice ingredients for sores or strains. The lack of fresh food in sailors’ rations would lead to digestive problems in the short term or even scurvy during a long voyage. Many minor illnesses were treated with enemas, whether truly appropriate or not.

In addition, the surgeon would know how to clean a sword cut, dig out a musket ball, or even pull a tooth. He might have to go as far as amputating the limb of an injured sailor. Dipping a man’s freshly severed stump in hot pitch to seal the wound would be as close to hygiene as the operation might come.
Object Caption (2023):

Clyster (Enema) Tips
Bronze (c.1610)
Gifts of Jamestown Inc.
1986.008.0132, 1986.008.1692