alt Hacker News> sailors didn't have access to the safe water of lakes and streams
As if the water of lakes and streams was necessarily safe. Imagine drinking Thames water in the era before proper sewers. In 1858 (the Great Stink) the Thames stank so badly from feces that parts of Parliament became unusable.
You’d have to go quite far upriver to avoid drinking seawater (since Thames is tidal) even before all the pollution.