Horatio Nelson’s surgeon • Scurvy • Let's twist again • Bog body
Back from Montreal -- after learning the Canadian Black Watch wear Royal Stuart Tartan although the Black Watch were disloyal to the Stuarts during the Jacobite Rebellion in 1745 -- and all the way to sunny Glasgow for Mark Stephen this week.
First stop was the Tall Ship -- the Glenlee -- now housed on the north bank of the Clyde near the SECC. The Glenlee is hosting a small exhibition to commemorate the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar and Nelson’s death on 21st October 1805. Mark spoke to curator Jenny Mercer about Nelson’s surgeon, William Beatty, and what conditions would have been like below decks where he was treating his patients.
Mark went over to the ship to meet David Harvie, author of "Limeys: The Conquest of Scurvy". David described how the Navy was debilitated by the problem of scurvy -- in fact, in the 18th century, more sailors died of scurvy than in battle. A cure was discovered by an Edinburgh-trained surgeon, James Lind, who conducted a clinical trial of various treatments. However, Lind’s ideas were not adopted by the Navy until after his death.
A couple of weeks ago, we spoke about the Top 10 club in Dundee -- a venue for many up and coming pop stars of the 1960s. Cathy Connolly remembered the Top 10 and spoke about her days dancing in Dundee clubs when she held the World Record for doing the twist -- she danced for more than 4 days non-stop with only short breaks for rest and liquid foods.
Listener George Arbuckle got in touch to see if Mark could help find the truth behind a story that the body of a Convenanter had been dug up on Greenhead Moss, near Cambusnethan in Lanarkshire. Mark took George to the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre at Nitshill where the body is now kept and spoke to Head of Research Alison Brown and Museum Director, Mark O’Neill. Mark and George then headed off to Greenhead Moss to talk to Past Lives History Doctor, Louise Yeoman, and local Covenanting historian, Rev. William Downey.