Leprosy is an infectious disease that has long frightened people, and for good reason. It can be transmitted from droplets from the mouth and nose of the infected person and can cause large, open sores on the body as well as severe nerve damage. Leprosy was not curable until the 1980s.
In 1912, a ship called Success was floating around with an outbreak of leprosy. No one would let the ship make port, their fear of the disease outweighing basic human rights and compassion.
Leprosy Breaks Out On Shipboard
Savannah, Ga., Feb. 1. — “S.O.S.! S.O.S.! S.O.S.!”
All day and all night long, that signal — the sea call for help — has been crackling off the poles of the wireless operator here.
The beseeching call comes from the British schooner Success. It is afloat somewhere off the Florida coast. It’s crew is starving, and unable to work the ship. The vessel itself is partly disabled. Three men have been washed overboard in a storm.
It was long before the wireless operator here could tune his instrument into accord with that of the dialed ship. But at last he managed to do it, and was able to ask what was wrong, and then the answer came, in one word — leprosy.
Leprosy broke out on the Success weeks ago. First one man was stricken, then another, then another. Half of its crew of 33 now are suffering from the most dread disease known to man.
With the outbreak of the disease, the Success sailed to a port on the Caribbean sea. It was denied entrance. It tried several ports on Puerto Rico. At each it was ordered away as soon as the nature of the disease that caused it to carry its flag at half mast became known.
So for weeks the Success has been wandering aimlessly on the high seas; denied entrance at all ports, shunned by all passing vessels. Its stores ran out. It could get no more. The officials at one port on the Caribbean threatened to sink her when she desperately tried to enter to obtain food.
The revenue cutter Yamacraw was sent from here to find the Success today when the story was told. Yamacraw probably will convoy the plague ship to Jacksonville, Fla.
Source: (1912, February 01). Leprosy Breaks Out On Shipboard. The Day Book.
