# Why was distillation not used to desalinate water on ships in the 17th century? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 11, 2010, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-distillation-not-used-to-desalinate-water-on-ships-in-the-17th-century/542760 "2010-06-11T04:09:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Snnipe\_70E](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5a626/32.png) [@Snnipe\_70E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snnipe_70E)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-distillation-not-used-to-desalinate-water-on-ships-in-the-17th-century/542760/21 "2010-06-12T09:47:11Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > People minus water = death, after what 5 days, less? > > So there were regulated fires onboard, yet an errant spark could kill 300 men. Sounds like a freak accident to me, given the common practice of having fire onboard. > > Would a distillation unit be under any less scrutiny that a galley fire? I’d think it might be part of the galley fire. > > If I’m gonna have a fire on a wooden boat, you’d better believe that there are _numerous_ buckets of water _right there_ within a foot or so of the fire. Everything within 20 feet would be soaked with seawater, and the fire would be isolated to an extreme. > > If one is planning to have a fire in a flammable boat, one should have waaay too much water on hand to quench it. People weren’t retarded back then, just old timey. To distill any amount of water will take a fair size still. You are going to need a enclosed fire box, a kettle, and a means of collecting the vapors and condensing them back to liquid. A sailing ship would have had a crew of 30 to 40 people? It would take a fair sized still to supply drinking water. Where would it be put? The galley would already be cramped. On deck? The weight and size would mean less cargo could be carried just for an emergency that may never happen. I can not see the owners or a captian allowing one to be put on their ship. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-distillation-not-used-to-desalinate-water-on-ships-in-the-17th-century/542760/22 "2010-06-12T10:25:28Z")
The main way that drinking fluid was stored was in the form of ‘small beer’. This significantly reduced the need for plain water and much less tendency to go off. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-distillation-not-used-to-desalinate-water-on-ships-in-the-17th-century/542760/23 "2010-06-12T11:47:00Z")
The stores of water turned nasty on long voyages. That’s where the rum and limes come in. To make it more feasible to choke down the nasty-ass water. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 12:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-distillation-not-used-to-desalinate-water-on-ships-in-the-17th-century/542760/24 "2010-06-12T12:16:36Z")
> [@Johanna](#): > > The stores of water turned nasty on long voyages. That’s where the rum and limes come in. To make it more feasible to choke down the nasty-ass water. No, limes were to prevent scurvy. > **[Scurvy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scurvy)** > > Scurvy or scorbutus is a deficiency disease (state of malnutrition) resulting from a lack of vitamin C (ascorbic acid). Early symptoms of deficiency include weakness, fatigue, and sore arms and legs. Without treatment, decreased red blood cells, gum disease, changes to hair, and bleeding from the skin may occur. As scurvy worsens, there can be poor wound healing, personality changes, and finally death from infection or bleeding. > It takes at least a month of little to no vitamin C in the diet bef... ---
**Author:** ![Lust4Life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ecc23a/32.png) [@Lust4Life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lust4Life)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-distillation-not-used-to-desalinate-water-on-ships-in-the-17th-century/542760/25 "2010-06-12T13:45:30Z")
It used to be on Brit Navy ships (probably not now though) that when the sea was particulary bumpy causing the ship to roll you would have a brief cessation of cold water in your shower resulting in a hotwater only shower for several seconds. Apart from the unpleasantness of the experience for yourself, you would hear a series of stifled screams from the other showers. Happy days! ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-distillation-not-used-to-desalinate-water-on-ships-in-the-17th-century/542760/26 "2010-06-12T14:41:07Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > No, limes were to prevent scurvy. > [Scurvy - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scurvy) The antiscorbutic properties were discovered because limes were already in use, and lower rates of scurvy were observed on ships that used limes. The original purpose of limes was to cut the bad taste of foul water. > **[Grog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grog)** > > Grog is a term used for a variety of alcoholic beverages. > Following England's conquest of Jamaica in 1655, rum gradually replaced beer and brandy as the drink of choice for the Royal Navy. The prior ration of eight pints of beer was replaced with a ration of one half-pint of spirits. In 1740, to minimise the subsequent illness, drunkenness, and disciplinary problems, British Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon ordered that the daily rum issue of one-half imperial pint (284 ml) of rum be mixed with one... > [@](#): > > Citrus juice (usually lime or lemon juice) was added to the recipe to cut down on the water’s foulness. Although they did not know the reason at the time, Admiral Edward Vernon’s sailors were healthier than the rest of the navy, due to the daily doses of vitamin C that prevented disease (mainly scurvy).[1] This custom, in time, got the British the nickname limeys for the limes they consumed. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-distillation-not-used-to-desalinate-water-on-ships-in-the-17th-century/542760/27 "2010-06-12T15:45:39Z")
Previous thread on this subject: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-374123.html](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-374123.html) ---
**Author:** ![Oldeb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ea666f/32.png) [@Oldeb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oldeb)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-distillation-not-used-to-desalinate-water-on-ships-in-the-17th-century/542760/28 "2010-06-12T15:52:28Z")
> [@dnooman](#): > > People minus water = death, after what 5 days, less? And people without a ship don’t even last that long. Look, provisioning was a obviously a huge deal. It just didn’t trump fire safety. > [@](#): > > So there were regulated fires onboard, yet an errant spark could kill 300 men. Sounds like a freak accident to me, given the common practice of having fire onboard. I mentioned the _Oxford_ because her disaster occured while she was at anchor. A fire is even more dangerous while under sail. And is it somehow more ridiculous to have lanterns on a wooden sailing ship then the smoking rooms that were onboard dirgibles? At least sailing vessels banned or heavily restricted smoking. It’s not like people didn’t know how flammable hydrogen was. The _Graf Zeppelin_, a passenger dirgible, went so far as to require passengers to wear felt slippers instead of shoes while on board because of the concern for shoe nails striking a spark. Everyone’s luggage was searched and anything that could create a spark was removed and stored seperately for the trip. And yet even with what seems like the stupidly risky addition of a smoking room the _Graf Zeppelin_ flew for 10 years and logged over a million miles without incident. > [@](#): > > Would a distillation unit be under any less scrutiny that a galley fire? I’d think it might be part of the galley fire. The galley fire was not always lit. It was extinguished in high winds, bad seas, and even on spotting another ship if there was the slightest chance the other vessel could prove hostile. Even when they were able to use the galley to cook a sailing ship in the 17th century would often only provide one hot meal a day. Most things were eaten cold. Compare that to the fire you would have to keep going in order to process enough salt water to provide drinking water for the entire crew. > [@](#): > > If I’m gonna have a fire on a wooden boat, you’d better believe that there are _numerous_ buckets of water _right there_ within a foot or so of the fire. Everything within 20 feet would be soaked with seawater, and the fire would be isolated to an extreme. It’s _cramped_ on a sailing ship. Where are you going to keep all these buckets? There just isn’t room. They did isolate the galley fire as best they could with stone or metal boxes, often with sand used as a liner around and in the box. > [@](#): > > People weren’t retarded back then, just old timey. Yes! And it’s not like distillation is something new. The _Babylonians_ knew about it. The Greeks used it. It was “lost” to medieval Europe, but was reintroduced from Arabia in the 12th century. A book called “The Art of Distillation” was published in English in 1651 and contains diagrams for industrial scale distilling. Sailing ships in Europe really came into their own during the Age of Exploration in the 15th century and lasted until the end of the Age of Sail around 1900. (although they remained in service a few decades after that) So if we take from 1651 to 1900 that’s a period of 249 years in which the knowledge of how to build both distilleries and sailing ships overlaps. In print. In English. If you take the first Latin translations available in Europe distilling predates the building of large scale sailing vessels. And yet during those _centuries_ of shipbuilding they didn’t consider it worth the fire hazard to try and distill salt water on a ship. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2010, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-distillation-not-used-to-desalinate-water-on-ships-in-the-17th-century/542760/29 "2010-06-12T17:32:28Z")
> [@Oldeb](#): > > It’s _cramped_ on a sailing ship. Where are you going to keep all these buckets? There just isn’t room. They did isolate the galley fire as best they could with stone or metal boxes, often with sand used as a liner around and in the box. Um, they had pumps in those days. Even hoses. I suspect a primary issue was fuel. Yes, you can distill (theoretically) a thousand gallons with a cord of wood. But with a wood-fired still, most of your heat would be lost to the chimney and other inefficiencies. So you might be able to distill 300-500 gallons of water with a cord of wood. A cord of hard wood can weigh 3000+ lbs, takes up significant space, and has to be kept dry. Easier just to use the space to store extra barrels of water – it would weigh roughly the same and take up roughly the same amount of space. (Coal would be a more compact choice, but I’m not sure how cheap or widely available it was in the days of sail.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-was-distillation-not-used-to-desalinate-water-on-ships-in-the-17th-century/542760.md?page=1)