Smallpox Threatens an American Privateer at Sea - Journal of the American Revolution

"On January 2, the Marlborough departed Edgartown in Martha’s Vineyard, commencing one of the most extraordinary voyages ever undertaken by an American privateer during the war. Its mission was to attack and plunder British slave forts and capture British slave ships operating on the West Coast of Africa."

Was there no Navy yet? Was it common for Privateers to be used for military missions?

Link in e-mail yesterday. Not only Smallpox, bad as it is, but also other diseases, easily treatable these days would have truly been a huge issue in those times.

I rarely consider health issues during colonial time, unless pointed out, maybe because of not finding mention of diseases that are preventable these days, while doing genealogical research. Were they rare, did not spread quickly? .

"Two important books in the twenty-first century have focused on the impact of terrifying smallpox contagions on the American Revolutionary War. Understandably, most of their stories are about smallpox infecting soldiers on land. As the two books relate, smallpox wrought havoc on Benedict Arnold’s small army outside Quebec in 1775 and 1776, and likely killed more than ten thousand Continental Army troops, many of them prisoners of war. The smallpox scourge impacted the military strategy of both side’s armies."