— <10? Blanchard guestimate.[2]

–3,100 British sailors and soldiers in fleet. Sternberg, George M. “Yellow Fever,” 1894, p. 42.

Narrative Information

Blake: “On June 11, 1693, the English fleet under Sir Francis Wheeler, sent out to cooperate with the colonial forces in action against Canada, arrived unexpectedly in Boston from Martinique. By this time Wheeler had already lost over half his command from yellow fever. To keep the infection from spreading among the inhabitants, Governor William Phips immediately ordered accommodations for the forces on Long Island and the next day forbade all communication with the fleet without his permission. Not everyone obeyed and the order proved insufficient to keep the disease from the town. On June 25 Timothy Wadsworth’s man died ‘of the Fever of the Fleet, as is supposed, he having been on board and in the Hold of some ship. Town is much startled at it.’ During July several deaths occurred ‘with very direful Symptoms, of turning Yellow, vomiting and bleeding every way and so Dying.’ Giving up the attack on Canada, Wheeler sailed for England, and in the fall the epidemic disappeared.” (Blake. Public Health in the Town of Boston 1630-1822. 1959, p. 31.)

Kotar and Gessler: “In 1690 a French warship departed Bangkok and put in at Recife, South Africa, where it appears yellow fever contagion was brought aboard. Arriving at Martinique, the fever spread ashore where it was called the mal de Siam. For the next decade yellow fever spread extensively through the Caribbean, ‘with the epidemiological characteristics of a newly introduced disease among a previously unexposed population,’ indicating significant incidence of yellow fever had been absent from the Antilles for some period.

“Hostilities reached North America in 1690. Within several months, Schenectady, New York, was burned by the French and the Indians; British colonial forces subsequently attacked Port Royal, Nova Scotia and Quebec. Yellow fever became a precipitating factor in 1693 when an English fleet under Sir Francis Wheeler sailed for the Caribbean for the purpose of working with the colonists in Barbados and Antigua in an attack on Martinique. When his crew fell ill and Wheeler encountered stiff French resistance, he altered plans, sailing for Boston to aid the British colonists in an attack on French forces in Canada. Sickness continued to plague the fleet and by the time the ships reached the Massachusetts Bay Colony over half the contingent had died, many from fellow fever. Warned of the situation, the colonial governor attempted to quarantine the troops but without success; by July, disease had spread to the city, killing several. Wheeler’s subsequent departure for England and the return of cold weather in the fall ended the threat. A yellow fever outbreak was recorded in Boston in 1693 but was the last to occur during this conflict…” (Kotar, S. L. and J. E. Gessler. Yellow Fever: A Worldwide History. 2017, p. 12.)

Sternberg: “Massachusetts. – In 1693 an English expedition sailed from Boston for the purpose of taking from the French the island of Martinique. The expedition failed in its object and returned to Boston on June 17^th, with yellow fever on board the vessels of the fleet. Hutchinson, in his ‘History of Massachusetts Bay,’ says the mortality among the sailors had been 1,300, out of a total strength of 2,100, and that out of the same number of soldiers the loss was 1,800. He states that the disease spread from the fleet to the town, and that many families left town and resided in the country until the infection had ceased. This is the first authentic account of the occurrence of yellow fever within the present limits of the United States.” (Sternberg)

Sources

Blake. Public Health in the Town of Boston 1630-1822. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959. Google preview accessed 5-22-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=Zk2j4jrSf2EC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Glover, M. W. (Assistant Surgeon, Marine Hospital Service). Yellow Fever–Why Did Not New Orleans Have Invasions of the Disease in Early Times, While Boston Did” (Bulletin No. 2, Section A.–History and Statistics). Washington, DC: Yellow Fever Institute, U.S. Marine-Hospital Service, Treasury Department, March 1902. Accessed 5-22-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=Roa_MxQjtscC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q=1693&f=false

Kotar, S. L. and J. E. Gessler. Yellow Fever: A Worldwide History. Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., Inc., Publishers, 2017. Google preview accessed 5-22-2019 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=odYBDgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

Sternberg, George M. (US Public Health Service, US Marine Hospital Service). “Yellow Fever,” pp. 39-72 in A Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences (Vol. 8), Albert Henry Buck, (Ed.). NY: William Wood & Co., 1894. Google digitized at:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Jr00AQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

[1] Approximately 3,100 British sailors and soldiers died on way to Boston and while stationed there in June and July. It was only reported that “several” colonists succumbed.

[2] Kotar and Gessler note that “several” people died when the disease spread from the ships to Boston. Sternberg simply notes that the disease spread to town. Yellow fever is quite deadly and was feared for good reason. While we do not know how to translate “several” into a number with so little information, we note “>” or “ten or less” in order to mark and take note of the outbreak herein.

1693 — June 17 start, Yellow Fever, Boston, British fleet arrival from Martinique[1] — <10?