Still Dizzy, the word limey does not go back 500 years, especially not in relation to eating limes on board ships. Limes were discovered on the island of Tahiti and this by Captain Cook in the late 1700's. The first Navy to act on behalf of their crew, when it came to reguards to the scurvy, was the US Navy and this took place in the early 1800's. Rum was the only ingredient that the English believed would cure or prevent scurvy and only in the sense that it took their mind off the problem.