During the Age of Sail, Scurvy was responsible for more deaths at sea than war, piracy, storms and shipwreck combined. For centuries the scourge of the seas was treated with ineffective remedies like oil of vitriol, bloodletting, seawater and wort of malt, and countless mariners suffered an agonising death. It wasn’t until the nineteenth century that citrus fruits became a mandatory part of the British navy’s diet, turning its fortunes around. This is the compelling account of how three men solved the greatest mystery of the seafaring age, and so played a key role in Britain’s successful blockade of the French and defeat of Napoleon. Although the cure for Scurvy ranks among the greatest of human accomplishments, its impact on history has been largely ignored. Set during the era of wooden ships and press gangs, Captain Cook’s voyages and the Battle of Trafalgar, The Age of Scurvy is both an important book and a classic adventure story. A cure had eluded doctors and philosophers since the time of the ancient Greeks. Countless mariners perished from an agonising death which began with bleeding gums, wobbly teeth, and the opening of old wounds. By the eighteenth century, exploration, military politics and global trade were almost impossible without finding Scurvy’s cure. Surgeon James Lind, sea captain James Cook, and physician Sir Gilbert Blane undertook the weighty task of cracking the riddle of Scurvy. Their achievements heralded a new age and solved the greatest medical mystery of the Age of Sail.