THE WOUNDED IN SEA FIGHTS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2860, 26 August 1916, Page 10

THE WOUNDED IN SEA FIGHTS

HOW THE NAYY TENDS THE

CASUALTIES

(By J.J. in the "Daily Mail.")

While the "Xelson spirit." still animates officers and nen because it is something that cannot be improved on, in matters of material and organisation the Navy keeps up to date—and a knot or so ahead of it. In handling casualties 'in land war and sea war there is now little difference iii practice. Exact uniformity can never be attained because circumstances aro against such a thing. But on sea, hospital ships have wrought a change similar to that brought about on laud by motor ambulances and ambulance trains. If the Fleet should not return to port after a battle, hospital ships would convey the wounded from "tho fighting line" to the shore hospital, [f tho Fleet did' "come in," naval ambulance trains would always be available wherever and whenever required. All this was planned out before war began, and so far the system has worked most efficiently.

_ Except for the "small fry," all British warships carry two or more surgeons, of whom the fleet-surgeon is the senior. Under the doctors there is a trained staff of sick-berth stewards and attendants who have been taught their job in one of tho big naval hospitals. As naval terminology rathnt puzzles the landsman, one may explain that the sick bay is,the "doctor's shop" of the ship and its-' temporary hospital. So far as appearance goes it somewhat resembles a small licspital ward fitted with swinging cots. Men "who "go sick" or are hurt aro treated in the "bay" until they are able to return to duty or an opportunity of sending them to hospital ccmes along. For some years past there hn? generally beon a hospital ship in regular attendance upon the Fleet whenever it was at sea. For a long while this duty was fulfilled by the Maine, a vessel given to us by Am-ariwn women during the Boer War. Now ve have quite a fleet of the-so 'icating naval hospitals.

. "Saoonri to None." The medical department of the Navy has not always linen so good as it is now,-, although that was not the fault of its officers. Until a couplo of decades ago the sick-bay arrangements were rather crude. -Surgeons had; to provide their own instrurmnts, which meant that their cases were not too well filled sometimes. More than onco in those casual days I i:sve been shown in sick bays antiquated sets of Gu'rgical instruments that had been handed down from surgeon to surgeon and told that they were in use at Trafalgar. But this I regarded as being intended to emphasise tiio unfitness of "the "tools" rather than to tell their true history. Somebody at last put "a dose of ginger" into the Admiralty, and the Navy began to move towards its present stato of unprecedented efficiency. Oneof the earliest steps taken along this road was the equipment of sick bayn with full sets of modern surgical instruments. Arrangements were likewise mado for naval surgeons to keep abreast of the times in professional knowledge. Now the Naval Medical Service is second to no.it —and ahead of most. • ■

Whilo a battleship is Jn action tk> surgeons and their assistants occupy two stations, one forward, tho othct aft. Both are "down below" in u place protected by armour. Also, both places arc fitted up like perfectly • equipped operating theatres. When, at the Tall of tho hug'lo, sailors go to their guns in readinsss for action tho Rick-berth staff and these detailed to assist them start fitting out the medical stations. Thither they carry operating table and all necessary instruments, a- medical chest, an eniergciwy chest bowls of antiseptic, and all elso that is needed for the grim work that lies ahead of tho surgeons. A. peep into one of these stations, with its white-clad staff, would make one think lie was looking at a section tlmt had been taken from a hospital and by soiiio means dropped into a warship. One would not, in fact, find in riiy hospital ashore a bettor equipped ..iperating theatre than one of these "stations" when it has been fully "lain out." Stretcher parties move about.tno ship after the fight has begun <in<! 'gather up tho wounded. 11110111 they "strike down" (lower through a hatch) to the surgeons below. After being attended to 'Micro the wounded' t-ro carried to the sick bay, the ward-room, or anv other part of tho ship that has boon turned into a. temporary hospital, and remain tlisrc under the charge ol sick-hay men. until they can lie removed. Magtiifis«nt Work.

Foresighted as well as thorough are the methods <if our Jiaval doctors. It possible, before going into action everyone aboard tho ship bathes and puts on clean white underclothing. Ibis is 'done because it has been found that the dyes in coloured clothing inlect wounds, and'thus make a man's injuries worse than they would otherwise he. As it is not always possible in, the heat of battle for the ambulance parties to pick up men immediately thov fall, sailors are taught-, first aid, and a bag of lirst-aid dressings is supplied to -every gun's crew, so that prompt, though temporary, attention may be given to every wounded man. Dh'iojackcts usually knot a black silk handkerchief around their waists when going into action, and this handkerchief comes in handy us a triangular bandage in an emergency. The naval surgeon has to "carry on" in far more trying conditions than fall to the lot of his Army confrere. All the time a battle is in progress ho remains in the heat of the fray, for he cannot get out of it. For him there is no snch thing as a dressingstation outside the zone of f:ro or on the edge of it. With, tho thud of fallshells and the noise of ncai -by explosions ever in his ears, ho must go steadily along, doing his best for tho wounded who are coming to him in a continuous stream. AH the while ho docs not know at what moment hia ship may be sunk, in which ease his own chance of escape, like that of everybody else "below," would b? small. Kven if the extreme, calamity does not happen, there is always a possibility that a stray projectile mav find its way to his "station" or fill the place with choking fumes. Faced by all these risks, and amid a deafening pandemonium of roaring guns, be must keep a deft hand and a steady nerve, as tho preservation nf life and limb depends upon Ins skill. Truly, his situation is not one io be coveted, but he never gives thought to its difficulties and dangers. Duly is the supreme call, and he obeys it whole-hearl'-dly. During the North Sea battle the naval surgeons and their staffs did magnil'nynt v.-ork, and p'any of them died at their posts. All honour in them fnr thoii courage and devot inn!