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Definitely very US focused. Misses out on some of the areas where the pandemic had the most devastating effects. One interesting story from The Great Influenza

Definitely very US focused. Misses out on some of the areas where the pandemic had the most devastating effects. One interesting story from The Great Influenza: The Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History by John M. Barry: "Freetown, Sierra Leone, was a major coaling center on the West African coast, servicing ships traveling from Europe to South Africa and the Orient. On August 15 the HMS Mantua arrived there with two hundred crew suffering from inﬂuenza. Sweating black men loaded tons of coal into her, guided by several crew. When the laborers returned to their homes, they carried more than their wages. Soon inﬂuenza spread through the force of men who coaled the ships. [...] The transport HMS Chepstow Castle, carrying troops from New Zealand to the front, coaled at Freetown on August 26 and 27; within three weeks, out of her 1,150 men, inﬂuenza struck down nine hundred of them. The death toll on her was thirty-eight. "

tomarr 7y ago
"The transport HMS Chepstow Castle, carrying troops from New Zealand to the front, coaled at Freetown on August 26 and 27; within three weeks, out of her 1,150 men, inﬂuenza struck down nine hundred of them." This doesn't sound right, so I looked into it. It could have been the HMS Chepstow (Chepstow Castle seems to have been cancelled from Wikipedia), but other sources [1] put the fatality number at 68 for that sailing which sounds more realistic. 900 out of 1150 would be above Ebola rates and that would have been very quick for such a mortality rate. [1] https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KYtAkAIHw24C&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=HMS+Chepstow+Castle&source=bl&ots=09REC1kDYM&sig=ACfU3U2ZJ17nrMpHB6Dh8jFbeabVuxOXNg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-xbus067nAhXPTsAKHRXQCdwQ6AEwDnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=HMS%20Chepstow%20Castle&f=false https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KYtAkAIHw24C&pg=PA38&lpg... Edit: Actually your source was correct, you just cut them off early which gave a very misleading impression, it said 38 of them died. Always good to be critical....
- WesleyLivesay 7y ago
  You are correct, copy paste error. Thank you for the correction. I have also updated my information above.

tomarr 7y ago

"The transport HMS Chepstow Castle, carrying troops from New Zealand to the front, coaled at Freetown on August 26 and 27; within three weeks, out of her 1,150 men, inﬂuenza struck down nine hundred of them." This doesn't sound right, so I looked into it. It could have been the HMS Chepstow (Chepstow Castle seems to have been cancelled from Wikipedia), but other sources [1] put the fatality number at 68 for that sailing which sounds more realistic. 900 out of 1150 would be above Ebola rates and that would have been very quick for such a mortality rate. [1] https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KYtAkAIHw24C&pg=PA38&lpg=PA38&dq=HMS+Chepstow+Castle&source=bl&ots=09REC1kDYM&sig=ACfU3U2ZJ17nrMpHB6Dh8jFbeabVuxOXNg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi-xbus067nAhXPTsAKHRXQCdwQ6AEwDnoECAgQAQ#v=onepage&q=HMS%20Chepstow%20Castle&f=false https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=KYtAkAIHw24C&pg=PA38&lpg... Edit: Actually your source was correct, you just cut them off early which gave a very misleading impression, it said 38 of them died. Always good to be critical....

WesleyLivesay 7y ago
You are correct, copy paste error. Thank you for the correction. I have also updated my information above.