In moderns times they look like a collection of instruments of torture, but for sea travellers who fell ill mid journey in the 1700s, the cure was quite often worse than the disease.

If you break an arm or leg whilst on board, the suitable treatment was to cut it off. A good surgeon could use this saw to hack through a limb in less than three minutes. Anaesthetic was not an option. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

Got a tooth ache? No problem - A surgeon would just place the cup of the tooth key over the offending tooth and twist until it snapped off at the roots. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

If sailors returned from shore visits with a little more than expected, those suffering from STDs such as gonorrhoea had bone syringes placed in the offending areas with urethral injections of mercury based solutions. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

The odds were heavily against sea travellers, with a journal recording a mortality rate of close to 60 percent in one journey in the 1740s. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

Poorly prepared meats were said to be to blame for widespread infestations of intestinal worms on sea voyages. It was thought weight loss may have been from malnutrition until surgeons recorded removing worms of up to 30cm long from children. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

The scarificator or 'mechanical leech' with 12 spring loaded blades were used to draw blood from ill patients. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

Enemas were common practice of ships, with syringes used to irrigate with mixtures of starch and opium or Epsom salts, gruel and butter depending on the ailment. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

Wooden and leather shoed forceps were used regularly to 'help' women with child birthing. In 1790 Dr William Smellie invented the coverings to remove the steel clinking noise and 'make them less terrible to women'. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

Ung:hyd:m was a mild strength mercury ointment that was used to help sailors recover from venereal diseases. In the 1700s they believed when sailors began to drool they were in recovery, now we know it is a sign of mercury poisoning. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

A 1617 first edition copy of John Woodall's 'The Surgions Mate' - a reference book used to aid ship's doctors and surgeons when administering treatments. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

A collection of medicines used by surgeons in the 1850s. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)

An embroidery sampler stitched by Ellen Moger in 1821, prior to setting sail on a voyage where she would tragically see three of her children die. (ABC Adelaide: Brett Williamson)