S8E8 Pacific Sick Ships: Medicine Aboard the Galleons

In the long journeys from Manila to Acapulco, disease was the clingy passenger no one wanted around. But it wandered around the decks, knocked on every cabin, stalked everyone on board—until one day, you woke up, and disease was just everywhere. How could it not be? There was food rotting inside the barrels, slick and moldy woodwork, crew and passengers and officers packed into tight spaces, pests crawling over the meals, the overpowering smell of human waste. And so they came, that grim parade: fever, chills, dysentery, infection, dermatitis, beriberi, the dread scurvy. How did the ships of the Galleon Trade and the trans-Pacific exchange keep up their good health in those arduous sea crossings? Let’s open the medicine chests and find out.Support us: patreon.com/thecolonialdeptFollow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: [email protected]: “Accessions to the Map-Room.” (1869) In the Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London, 39.Arranz, Adolfo; Hernandez, Marco (6 May 2018). “Chapter 3: A journey of dread.” In Adolfo, Hernandez (2018),The China Ship, South China Morning Post. Luque-Talaván, Miguel (2014). “Oceanic deaths aboard the Manila galleons.” In Van Tilburg, H., Tripati, S., Walker Vadillo, V., Fahy, B., and Kimura, J. (eds.), Iberian Global Interactions: the Manila Galleon and the Roteiro, The Museum of Underwater Archaeology (MUA) Collection.Morris, David Z. (17 May 2016). “Cruel ships of prosperity.” Aeon. https://aeon.co/essays/the-manila-galleons-that-oceaneered-for-plague-and-profit“Unguentum Populeon.” The Poisoner’s Apothecary. https://www.thepoisonersapothecary.com/shop/p/unguentum-populeonMatera, Margherita (8 November 2022). “Old Italian Recipes of Medical Ointments in Psalter Manuscript Rahlfs 1759.” Göttinger Septuaginta. https://septuaginta.uni-goettingen.de/blog/old-italian-recipes-of-medical-ointments-in-psalte/Stuart, Godofredo U., Jr., (n.d.).“Sandalino/Connarus semidecandrus Jack.” Philippine Medicinal Plants. https://www.stuartxchange.org/SandalinoViena de Souza, Lais (2018). Missionários Do corpo à alma: Assistência, saberes e práticas de cura nas missões, colégios e hospitais da Companhia de Jesus (Goa e Bahia, 1542-1622) [doctoral dissertation]. Universidade de Évora.Klein, Wouter (16 June 2021). “Plant of the Month: Sarsaparilla.” JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/plant-of-the-month-sarsaparilla/ Kroupa, Šebestián. Georg Joseph Kamel (1661–1706): A Jesuit Pharmacist at the Frontiers of Colonial Empires [doctoral dissertation]. Darwin College, University of Cambridge.Hajar, Rachel (2012). “The Air of History (Part II) Medicine in the Middle Ages.” Heart Views, 13(4), pp. 158–162. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3573364/Clarke, Laurie (17 September 2025). “The four 'humours': Our 2,500-year-old mania for personality types.” BBC. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250915-the-ancient-origins-of-todays-personality-typesDorner, Zachary (22 September 2020). “How Early Modern Empire Changed Medicine.” The Boston Review. https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/zachary-dorner-how-early-modern-empire-turned-people-patientsJoven, Arnel E. (2012). “Colonial adaptations in tropical Asia: Spanish medicine in the Philippines in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.” Asian Cultural Studies, 38, pp. 171–186.Eppenberger, Patrick; Galassi, Francesco; Rühli, Frank (2017). “A brief pictorial and historical introduction to guaiacum – from a putative cure for syphilis to an actual screening method for colorectal cancer.” British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, 83(9), p. 2118-2119.Voeks, Robert & Greene, Charlotte (2019). “God’s Healing Leaves: The Colonial Quest for Medicinal Plants in the Torrid Zone.” Geographical Review, 108(4), pp. 545-465. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6208447/Wani-Obias, Rhodalyn C. (2025). “Health, History, and the High Seas.” In Wani-Obias (ed.), Galleons and Social Control in the Spanish Empire: Volume V, National Historical Commission of the Philippines.Najera, René F. (9 May 2025). “Isabel Zendal: The First Public Health Nurse.” History of Vaccines. Sales, Ostwald C. (2005). “Las Actividades Medicas en las filipinas durante la Primera Mitad del Siglo XVII.” Perspectivas LatinoAmericanas, 2(168).  http://altmetrics.ceek.jp/article/publisher/Centro%20de%20Estudios%20Latinoamericanos%20Universidad%20Nanzan