COURAGEOUS CAPTAIN

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22142, 22 June 1935, Page 10 (Supplement)

COURAGEOUS CAPTAIN

SEVERE ILLNESS AT SEA ACTS AS OWN DOCTOR A ship's captain who doctored himself for 20 days on the high seas before sending out an S. O. S. was brought ashor<- on a stretcher from the CunardWhite Star liner Scythia at Liverpool, is Constantine Christides, aged S5 master of the Greek freighter, fohaXP-Gonlamlris (3750 ton.) which was bound from Montreal to Hull When in mid-Atlantic, Laptain Christides sent out a wireless message of 200 words to all vessels within a radiusi of 100 miles, asking for a fast ship to pick him up and take him to England, and stating that he was in a weak condition and getting feebler. He stated his temperature. The message was received by ttie Scythia at midnight, as the passengers were dancing. The liner hastened to the freighter, 50 miles away, and waited alongside until dawn. At 4.30 a.m., with most of the passengers on the liner taking snapshots and using cine cameras, the captain was transferred from his own ship to the Scythia. " Captain Christides is a very unusual personality and Quite a sideline in patients," said Dr. H. Archer, the Scythia's surgeon. " It was a new experience to me to find a patient making voluminous notes of his condition and keeping records of tho progress of hi 5 illness. . "He has written m diary iorm that a doctor in Montreal diagnosed nose trouble. At Quebec the doctor found him in a state of high fever, and at Nova Scotia a third doctor diagnosed anaemia. " Then he proceeded to sea, and durirg the '2O days before we picked him up his records prove that he acted as doctor to himself in thorough fash ion. " One note shows that he sent himself "O bed at 9 p.m.. and throughout each day his varying temperature is given, until the fever reached the maximum' and lie sent out his radio call stating in detail his condition. " In one of his notes he prescribed for himself absolute rest in bed, plenty of fresh air and fruit, and a sponging daily with tepid water." Captain Cbriistides was taken to a tropical diseases ward in a Liverpool hospital for a blood test to be made.