The Black Death arrived in Europe by sea in October 1347 when 12
Genoese trading ships docked at the Sicilian port of Messina
after a long journey through the Black Sea. The people who
gathered on the docks to greet the ships were met with a
horrifying surprise: Most of the sailors aboard the ships were
dead, and those who were still alive were gravely ill. They were
overcome with fever, unable to keep food down and delirious from
pain. Strangest of all, they were covered in mysterious black
boils that oozed blood and pus and gave their illness its name:
the “Black Death.” The Sicilian authorities hastily ordered the
fleet of “death ships” out of the harbor, but it was too late:
Over the next five years, the mysterious Black Death would kill
more than 20 million people in Europe–almost one-third of the
continent’s population. "The Black Death" Even before the “death
ships” pulled into port at Messina, many Europeans had heard
rumors about a “Great Pestilence” that was carving a deadly path
across the trade ro