Symptoms of Scurvy

"Mr. Daniel Wallace Blue, Engineer of the Alaska died May 2nd, at 4:35 a.m. having been sick in bed for ten days. His death was apparently caused by pneumonia or inflammation of the lungs. He had a touch of scurvy, or what they thought was scurvy. Mr. Sweeney, Mike, and some of the natives at Baillie Island had the same trouble. The only symptom was that when the finger was punched into the legs, the dent remained for some little time. Legs slightly swollen. They had become a little better in April, and Mr. Blue and Jacobsen started down the coast to hunt Ptarmigan. Jacobsen returned with Blue on the sled. Blue had great difficulty in getting his breath, and wanted skylight open all the time with roaring fire. He had not much appetite and food would not stay on his stomach. They had no fresh meat but Polar Bear and Seal, which he did not relish. They had plenty of flour, peas, sugar, mixed Dehydro vegetables. Fred Jacobsen had a touch of the same trouble in the winter at his camp west of Liverpool bay, and McIntyre and Arey the same at Darnley Bay. None of them had such scorbutic symptoms as discoloration of limbs, swelling of gums or loosening of teeth. Blue, Mike and Sweeney were always able to be around, and frequently went out hunting Seals, etc. As they were all improving in condition as spring approached, it seems probable that pneumonia was responsible for Mr. Blue's demise." (R.M. Anderson Diary 1915)