fleas, rodents, and cargo ships..oh my!
Pure horror: The bubonic genesis
The plague originally arrived in Europe in October 1347, when 12 ships from the black sea docked at the Sicilian port of Messina. People gathered at the docks like any other greeting, which was standard for sailors during this time. However, upon anticipating their arrival, they would make a haunting discovery: Most of the sailors aboard the ship were dead, and those that were still alive were gravely ill and covered in black boils that oozed with blood and pus.
Local Sicilian authorities quickly commanded the fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor, but it seemed as if it was too late. The Black Plague had arrived in Europe.
Even before the fleet of death ships in Messina, many Europeans had heard rumors about a “Great pestilence” that had left a deadly wrath across the trade routes of the far east. In the early 1340’s, the pandemic had ravaged China, India, Persia, Syria, and Egypt. The plague is thought to have originated in Asia over 2,000 years ago and was likely spread once again by trading ships, though some recent research and experts have posited that the pathogen culprit for the black death may have existed in early Europe as early as 3000 B.C.
This image/painting above captures the port of Messina before the emergence of the plague via the “Death fleet.” The proverbial calm before the storm.
An ordinary painting portraying men aboard a ship anxiously awaiting the arrival of an unholy vessel. The plague largely inspired much of the art produced in England during the 1300s, particularly in scenes at sea.
The sinister and ominous symbolism associated with the beginning of the plague pandemic devolved into pure panic and terror from those who had not been infected yet, much like the initial anxieties associated with COVID-19. (Pictured above is an eerie image that portrays the precarious dichotomy between the infected and the uninfected amidst the lingering and pervasive fears, which appears to be a form of early European propaganda.
A seemingly innocuous drawing of a rat boarding a cargo ship. As we learned, the bubonic plague started with infected fleas (parasites) that were feasting on the blood of black rats, which later moved to human hosts.