Category Books

Doctors at Sea: Emigrant Voyages to Colonial Australia »

Authors: Robin Haines
ISBN-13: 9781403986856, ISBN-10: 1403986851
Format: Hardcover
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Date Published: March 2006
Edition: (Non-applicable)

Author Biography: Robin Haines

Robin Haines is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Social Science, Flinders University, Australia.

Book Synopsis

In this engaging tale of movement from one hemisphere to another, we see doctors at work attending to their often odious and demanding duties at sea, in quarantine, and after arrival. The book shows, in graphic detail, just why a few notorious voyages suffered tragic loss of life in the absence of competent supervision. Its emphasis, however, is on demonstrating the extent to which the professionalism of the majority of surgeon superintendents, even on ships where childhood epidemics raged, led to the extraordinary saving of life on the Australian route in the Victorian era.

1	'It would be very satisfactory to land them all in good health' : emigrants and their superintendents at sea	1
2	'May it be the last of our sorrows' : disease and death at sea	17
3	'The obstinately dirty character of the people' : origins, children, and epidemics at sea	34
4	'A most efficient body of officers' : surgeon superintendents and their responsibilities	54
5	'His many duties and anxieties' : supervision and discipline at sea	81
6	'The mother's milk generally fails them in about six weeks' : infant and child health	92
7	'The people suffered greatly in consequence' : discomfort, weather, and great circle sailing	104
8	'The Dr. is supreame over all on board bar the capton and officers' : matrons, constables, and emigrants	118
9	'Firmness and indulgence, consideration and strictness' : Dr. Strutt's management of families and Irish girls	133
10	'I held a court in the ward' : Dr. Ayre and democracy at sea	147
11	'The passengers are falling sick every day' : epidemics and quarantine	170
App. 1	The uses of South Australian data on causes of death	180
App. 2	Individual causes of death as reported by surgeons on voyages to South Australia 1848-1885	182