Naval surgeon

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A naval surgeon, or less commonly ship's doctor, is the person responsible for the health of the ship's company aboard a warship. The term appears often in reference to Royal Navy's medical personnel during the Age of Sail.

Ancient uses

Specialised crew members capable of providing medical care have been a feature of military vessels for at least two thousand years. The second-century Roman Navy under Emperor Hadrian included a surgeon aboard each of its triremes, with the position earning twice a regular officer's pay.^[1]

Royal Navy

During the Age of Sail, the Royal Navy carried trained medical officers aboard its warships, who usually learned their trade before coming on board ship. They were generally called surgeons. The Navy Board qualified surgeons through an examination at the Barber-Surgeons' Company and they were responsible to the Sick and Wounded Board under the Navy Board.^[2] Surgeons were required to keep two logbooks detailing treatments and procedures carried out under their care; at the conclusion of any voyage these were to be delivered one to the Barber-Surgeons' Company and one to Greenwich Hospital.^[3]

Warranted Naval Medical officers, similar to doctors on shore, were not required to have a medical degree and were generally trained by apprenticeship.

In addition to caring for the sick and wounded, surgeons were responsible for regulating sanitary conditions on the ship. They fumigated the sick bay and sometimes whole decks by burning brimstone (sulfur), and maintained the ventilating machines that supplied fresh air to the lower decks to keep them dry.^[6]

Notable naval surgeons

Historical

• George Bass (1771 – after 1803) sailed to New South Wales as ship's doctor on HMS Reliance. He was a naturalist and explorer; Bass Strait is named in his honour.^[10]
• William Balmain (1762–1803) was a Scottish-born naval surgeon and civil administrator who sailed as an assistant surgeon with the First Fleet to establish the European settlement in Australia, and later became principal surgeon for New South Wales.
• William Beatty (1773–1842) was the ship's surgeon on HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. He tended the mortally wounded Admiral Nelson and wrote an account of the battle.
• William Ruschenberger (1807–1895) was a naturalist and surgeon aboard USS Peacock, as well as the namesake of the boa Corallus ruschenbergerii.^[11]
• Richard Brinsley Hinds (1811–1846) was a surgeon on the 1835–1842 voyage of HMS Sulphur to explore the Pacific Ocean, and edited the natural history reports of the expedition.
• Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895), anatomist known as "Darwin's Bulldog", was an assistant ship's surgeon early in his career, on HMS Rattlesnake
• William Carr (1883–1966) was an Australian naval surgeon and admiral who, in the course of his career, served on HMAS Melbourne, HMAS Australia, and HMAS Sydney.
• Timothy Blair McLean (1910–1982), Canadian Surgeon-General, served as a medical officer and surgeon aboard HMCS Uganda during the Second World War.

Fictional

• Aubrey-Maturin series
• Lemuel Gulliver, main character of Johnathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels^[12]
• Yoshikage Kira, side character of Hirohiko Araki's JoJolion