[H.M.S. Juno at sea off Cape Ann and Cape Cod] On the 26th [July] a cask of molasses was taken out of a prize for each of the three ships companies, and eight casks of limes were divided among them; the Orpheus had one half of the limes, as her people were the most sickly with fever and scurvy. I got 18 bottles of small French wine for the use of the sick.
On the 28th, I put three gallons of lime juice and six of molasses in 18 gallons of rum (but, by mistake, the steward put in more rum than I directed), to be served, when diluted with water; to the scorbutic people, in the room of grog.
1. Robert Robertson, M.D., Observations on Jail, Hospital, or Ship Fever, From the 4th April, 1776, until the 30th April, 1789 (London, 1789), 128. Hereafter cited as Robertson, Observations on Jail ... Fever.
