- Paperback: 224 pages
- Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (Sep 21 2001)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0415924529
- ISBN-13: 978-0415924528
- Product Dimensions: 22 x 14.7 x 1.8 cm
- Shipping Weight: 358 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #739,969 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Details |
Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
Why would a medical doctor put himself on a whaling vessel in the age of sail? The pay was not tremendous, the company less than stimulating and the danger of disaster significant. Having sketched the origins of doctoring at sea, highlighting John Woodall (1569-1643), "the Father of Sea Surgery," Druett for the most part follows a group of British doctors who shipped out in the 1830s to find adventure and fortune in exotic waters such as the Celebes Sea. Also included is an account of one distinguished New York surgeon, John B. King, who sailed at the same time on a Nantucket whaler. None did amazingly well, nor did any do especially badly, but their collective experience will be of special interest to readers who enjoy the literature of sailing ships. Druett showcases excellent research with generous quotations of primary documentsAsome of which are reproduced along with paintings, etchings, photographs and drawings. One of the three appendices compares what Dr. Woodall's and Dr. King's medical chests contained, demonstrating that the herbal treatments used during the 17th century had been replaced by more purely chemical remedies in the 19th. The pursuit of adventure seems to have been these generally well-educated gentlemen's motivation, but Druett's writing does not conform to the fast-paced style of adventure narrative. Those who enjoyed Patrick O'Brian's eye for historical detail will delight in Druett, a dedicated historian, but they will not find the same talent for drama. (Dec.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
New Zealander Druett, who has written on women at sea, here considers 11 male professional seafarers, surgeons on whaling ships during 1823-43, on voyages that took them to the South Seas, south and east of China, and lasted from two to four years. Druett has read and absorbed the men's journals, which range in manner from cool and scientific in the notes of an amateur biologist to newsy and illustrated in those of a particularly attentive observer. She opens the book with an account of the first surgeon general of the East India Company and his medical sea chest, and continues with English whaling ship surgeons because England required whalers to carry a surgeon (the U.S. didn't, and a captain often had to perform as one). Filled with accounts of the drama and tedium of whaling, exciting battles with whales, and the occasional gruesome medical event, the book should please sailing buffs, history buffs, and fans of the well-told, lively story. William Beatty
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
AS LONG AS MEN AND WOMEN HAVE GONE TO SEA, DOCTORS HAVE accompanied them. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
AS LONG AS MEN AND WOMEN HAVE GONE TO SEA, DOCTORS HAVE accompanied them. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rough Medicine takes a new look at sea history,
By Doug Kelley (Pocola, OK United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Rough Medicine: Surgeons at Sea in the Age of Sail (Hardcover)
In "Rough Medicine," Joan Druett continues the excellence of such previous works as "Hen Frigates" and "She Captains" in bringing to her audience everday life upon the sea when ships under sail roamed the oceans. Where these other books focus on women who found themselves on long voyages, usually with their husbands who captained the ships, this new volume of easy to read history looks at life on the whaling ships of the early 1800s. These ships left port in search of whales and did not return until the holds were full of their valuable oil. If the captain and crew were lucky, it only took a year or two. To be gone four years or even five was not out of the question. Ms. Druett tells this story through the surviving diaries and journals of surgeons who accompanied the crews on these long and hazardous voyages. Along with extraordinary eye-witness accounts of whaling methods, the reader is shown that to be put under the knife in those days of rough medical techniques was scarcely less dangerous than battling whales in tiny boats. A main requirement to be a surgeon, it seems, was to be strong enough to hold down the unwilling patient. Reading "Rough Medicine" will leave you thankful to be living in our modern age, while at the same time make you wonder how archaic our methods of medicince will seem a hundred years from now. In the meantime, sit back with this good read of a life at sea, as so many of us have often wished to experience. And be glad you have all your arms and legs, and that no well-intentioned sea surgeon has hacked them off. -Doug Kelley
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Hard Life Aboard Ship,
By
This review is from: Rough Medicine: Surgeons at Sea in the Age of Sail (Hardcover)
A thoroughly engaging presentation of nautical history on the lives and times of the early ship's surgeons on British and American naval and whaling vessels. The drawings of the early surgeon's tools, the descriptions of the surgical procedures and the stories of illness and injury makes one wonder why did anyone sign on as a ship's surgeon? Very informative and highly recommended.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Medics to the explorers,
By "puppypokey" (Northcountry) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Rough Medicine: Surgeons at Sea in the Age of Sail (Hardcover)
My angle on this book is from an avid adventure & exploration reader's perspective. I enjoy reading the exploits of Franklin, Shackleton, Cooke, and such sea borne explorers.One of the constants of all of the fantastic voyages of exploration is the inclusion of a physician / scientist. Almost in cliche style these doctors play a major role in the direction and guidance of the expedition. (If you will pardon the comparison, most ships doctors seem just like Bones on Star Trek.) This book gathers together the biographies, anecdotes and histories of many of these physicians into a conherent historical theme. Great book!! (Very readable and accessible.)
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