Possible Historical Basis for Pirate Science Activity

I was telling some of my buddies about the Pirate game we're designing, and some of the troubles we're having coming up with ways to teach science concepts, and one of them told me about a real-world event that happened during that era that might be of use.

Apparently, there was a town that was having a Cholera epidemic, and people were dropping like flies. Finally, an astute person pulled out a map of the town and started making marks showing where the victims lived and spent their days. When the marks clustered around a town well, they were able to quickly zero in on the cause of the epidemic and thwart it.

This strikes me as a good example of observational science. You obviously can't do strict control experiments, because if you suspect the well is contaminated, you wouldn't ask anyone to drink from it, but you can take quick, decisive action based upon your observations.

Now, it's a little morbid for our target audience, but since we're talking about food safety, perhaps we could have a map showing where people are getting sick. Everyone who was getting sick is eating at the same pirate restaurant, so you can track it down to "Ol' Hook's House of Haddock" or something.