Thursday, January 29, 2015

Blackbeard's booty

"Treating the sick and injured of a sea-bound community on shipboard was challenging in the best of times," says archaeologist Linda Carnes-McNaughton, who is working with the Queen Anne's Revenge Project to recover artifacts from infamous pirate Blackbeard's flagship, run aground off the coast of North Carolina, U.S., in 1718. Among the items stocked onboard to keep the crew in fighting shape were a number of medical instruments: a mortar and pestle and a graduated series of weights used to prepare medicine, a urethral syringe used to treat syphilis, a silver needle and a pair of scissors possibly used during surgery, and a clyster pump (IMAGE ABOVE) used to quickly rehydrate the body by introducing liquids into the rectum.

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