Marching, er, Strolling Through Georgia, Part 2

When she turned back to him, Dr. Murray had a chest of instruments open and was examining them.
“Is that what you will take with you?”
He held up a lancet, wiped it on his coat sleeve, then examined its edge in the light.
“My chest is the most valuable item I own. If there is time to take any one thing with me, this is what I will take.” He put the blade down and looked at her. “Again, abandoning ship is a last resort and I do not expect that to happen. It is always best to be prepared for the worst situation, though. If it happens, you are ready; if it does not happen, you can count yourself pleasantly surprised.”

--CASTAWAY DREAMS


I wanted to post some more pictures from the Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum in Savannah because it had so much cool stuff, or at least cool to someone who writes about scurvy and scabies and surgery below decks. This chest on the right is a surgeon's chest of the kind that would have been used by Alexander Murray in Castaway Dreams or Charley Alcott in Sea Change. As Murray points out, it's his most valuable possession, the tools of his trade. Surgeons were treated as skilled laborers, not professionals such as a physician. However, as both Murray and Alcott demonstrate, aboard ship a surgeon was expected to do it all--dispense drugs like an apothecary, diagnose disease, and, as was all too often necessary, amputate limbs. They were also the closest thing to a dentist back in the day and the lower illustration is a dental tool chest with all the grim looking tooth-pulling tools one would have expected before modern dentistry. You can also see the drug jars for the various medications to be dispensed for everything from hemorrhoids to rheumatism to sexually transmitted diseases.

When a surgeon wasn't available it was the ship's captain or his wife who'd be responsible for doctoring the men. Chests of medications could be purchased before a voyage and there would be instructions included on doses and symptoms to help the amateur who was all at sea when it came to practicing medicine.

Mistakes were made, of course, but for the men (and the petticoat sailors) who were isolated on the water it was the best alternative available to them.

One final shot from the Ships of the Sea Museum.The model ships on display are amazingly detailed and it's clear they were crafted with love. When you view them in their display cases you can see how much care went into them, and  this is one of my favorite scenes. When you look deep inside one of the coastal steamers you see the passenger quarters, of course, but way down below decks you can also find this jolly mariner who is enjoying a bit of idleness in the crew's quarters as he plays on his guitar. Perhaps he was the same one who made the "sailor's valentine" for his sweetheart, and longs to be reunited with her again. When you write nautical fiction, especially nautical romance, there are always stories waiting just around the next corner (or down below.)