The sailor and the quack doctor (caricature). © NMM
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| The sailor and the quack doctor (caricature). © NMM |
Seamen arriving at the doors of the ‘Dreadnought’ suffered from these illnesses and more:
Accidents on board ships and in local dockyards happened frequently and the hospital had to do its fair share of wound dressing and bone setting.
Sailors suffered from a range of illnesses, some brought about by the hard life at sea, others simply from old age. They often reported symptoms of rheumatism, ulcers and bronchitis.
Infectious diseases such as typhoid and cholera often affected seamen, together with more general fevers and various tropical infections. And, of course, the notorious lifestyle of seamen once ashore led to many cases of sexually transmitted diseases.
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| A ward, Dreadnought Seaman's Hospital, Greenwich. © NMM |
After the First World War the society opened its first convalescent home at Cudham in Kent. A major sanatorium for seamen who had tuberculosis (TB) was built in Hampshire in 1921.
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| Greenwich and the Dreadnought. © NMM |
The hospital and its medical staff played their part in tackling two particular 19th-century diseases. On the Thames they confronted cholera, while more generally they did a lot to eradicate scurvy.
During the great cholera epidemic of 1832 a smaller vessel, the Dover, was temporarily moored alongside the Dreadnought to serve as an isolation ‘ward’. This policy was repeated successfully during later outbreaks of the disease.
Scurvy was a particular problem for the hospital, which frequently pressured the Government to take action. The disease could be prevented by issuing seamen with lime juice, but many employers failed to take this simple action. The society helped establish regulations in 1867 that forced employers to provide suitable lime juice to their crews. This led to the elimination of scurvy from British ships.
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| One of the wards, Dreadnought Hospital, Greenwich. © NMM |
On a larger scale, during the construction of the Blackwall Tunnel in the 1890s, the ‘Dreadnought’ found itself acting as an unofficial first aid post for all those labourers injured during the building works. The building company Pearson acknowledged that support later by helping to raise £400 towards the hospital’s funds.