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The average lifespan for the period you are describing (say, 1492-ish since we're talking about sailing) was their mid-thirties (and probably lower for the peop

The average lifespan for the period you are describing (say, 1492-ish since we're talking about sailing) was their mid-thirties (and probably lower for the people that actually got on those boats). So I think I like our strategy better. And it's not even about "but at least they truly lived!", their lives were miserable. It's a lot easier to "face the unknown" when the "known" is itself often religious persecution, famine, or worse. I might have gotten on those boats too if where I currently was kept switching between Protestantism and Catholicism depending on who rose to the crown. Consider that perhaps the best way to honor those "fearless" risks is to not waste the world they made possible for us by unnecessarily cutting our own lives short. I certainly hope my descendants have even longer lives than I do! But perhaps that's just my selfish genes talking.

disneygibson 5y ago
That wasn’t the average lifespan of people who reached adulthood. Infant mortality was simply higher.
- tolmasky 5y ago
  It wasn't much better if you reached adulthood. Seems like mid-forties up to the 1400s, and early fifties up to 1600s, for the nobility in England. So, you know, not the people getting on those boats probably.
  - Gibbon1 5y ago
    I think the mortality rate for teens and adults was something like 3-4 times higher than today. People also lived through epidemics that would cull 5-10% of the population every 20-30 years. Also my grandmother mentioned that when she was young girl just a 100 years ago old people were absolutely broken. Today a lot of people spend their sixties and seventies in very good health. Also I remember reading about grave site on a bluff in California that was eroding away. Contained the graves of sailors that died when a ship sank in the 1880's. Before reburying them higher up on the bluff they looked over their bones. They weren't in very good health despite being in their 20-40s.

disneygibson 5y ago

That wasn’t the average lifespan of people who reached adulthood. Infant mortality was simply higher.

tolmasky 5y ago
It wasn't much better if you reached adulthood. Seems like mid-forties up to the 1400s, and early fifties up to 1600s, for the nobility in England. So, you know, not the people getting on those boats probably.
- Gibbon1 5y ago
  I think the mortality rate for teens and adults was something like 3-4 times higher than today. People also lived through epidemics that would cull 5-10% of the population every 20-30 years. Also my grandmother mentioned that when she was young girl just a 100 years ago old people were absolutely broken. Today a lot of people spend their sixties and seventies in very good health. Also I remember reading about grave site on a bluff in California that was eroding away. Contained the graves of sailors that died when a ship sank in the 1880's. Before reburying them higher up on the bluff they looked over their bones. They weren't in very good health despite being in their 20-40s.