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The Politics of Sea Surgery During the Golden Age of Piracy, Page 7

Micro-Politics: Physicians at Sea

The monitoring of the surgeon's chests wasn't the only place the surgeons had to give up some of their autonomy. In 1632, the College of Physicians managed to get an order passed which
Artist: Ludolf Bakhuizen
Embarking onto a Yacht (1670-9) required the surgeons to have a physician in attendance when treating certain complicated surgical cases. The Barber Surgeons Company staged a spirited campaign against this order, explaining that "no doctors [physicians] will serve in his Navy, and therfore ther is a necessitye of their being licensed to practize phisicke"¹. The physicians rebutted this, protesting the charge that they wouldn't serve in the Navy, even offering the names of five junior fellows of the College who would be willing to serve. However, the point was made, the junior fellows were never called and the 1632 order was cancelled.

In 1641, the College of Physicians sent another bill to Parliament explaining that their charter from King James gave them the right "to be the sole administrators of ‘inward medicines’, which the Barber-Surgeons were violating.² The Company of Barber Surgeons sent a rejoinder letter to the House of Lords stating

That surgeons are dayly employed in voyages at sea, and in the service of merchants, where there hath been used no physician; and if by this Bill, they be restrained from administering physic to the patients here, they will no way be able to perform the trust reposed in them at sea, whereby many of His Majesty's subjects must perish, for want of experienced surgeons.³

They once again pointed out that for sea surgeons "the charge [of the care] of all, both sick and wounded, are upon them, without [the help of] physicians or apothecaries."⁴ Recognizing the internecine nature of this discussion in the medical branches, the House of Lords chose to stay out of it. They appointed physicians Paul de Laune and Nathaniel Chamberlaine to serve with the surgeons in the army in 1643, the first step towards incorporating physicians in the Navy.

Although physicians had served briefly in the Navy in the past, the suggestion to bring them into the naval branch in a regular capacity can be found in a letter written
Artist: Robert Walker - General Richard Deane (1653) in 1653 by Generals Richard Deane and George Monck. They requested two chests be provided for the fleet's flagship, "one with medicaments for physics, the other with unguents and plaisters [for topical use by surgeons]" along with a suggestion that an able man with knowledge of both surgery and medicine "go along with us as having more immediate dependance upon and respect to our two person as also to supervise the whole".⁴ Historian John Keevil notes, "In this almost casual reference the generals had in fact defined the duties which were to be carried out by physicians to the fleet for nearly two hundred years… in terms of… their responsibilities for medical supplies afloat, and ‘to supervise the whole’ medical administration in the fleet."⁵

The first Physician to the Fleet (not counting the two unnamed physicians temporarily assigned to the navy in 1588) was none other than former army physician Paul de Laune, who was now almost 70 years old. He was appointed in 1654 during the Western Design - a voyage meant to colonize Hispaniola. He died soon after in Jamaica during his naval service without ever being mentioned officially, a rather inauspicious debut for naval physicians.

For much of the 17th century, the physician's role was primarily in ports where ill sailors were brought to be treated for more complex health problems, particularly during war time. Surgeons continued to be the first, and, on long voyages, the only, medical men to deal with illnesses at sea requiring internal medicines. However, scurvy struck the fleet in 1691 during a long voyage to protect ships returning from the West Indies and Smyrna. No fighting occurred, but the illness so crippled the fleet that the Admiralty "was forcibly confronted with the need for physicians at chief ports and in the fleet."⁶

As a result, physicians were appointed to the Red and Blue Squadrons in the Fleet. It was "Resolved that the [Admiralty] Board write to the Colledge of Physitians to nominate some able Physicians to go to sea with the Fleet with the allowance of twenty shillings a day" along with others to be stationed in ports.⁷ Jeremiah Butt joined the Blue Squadron and Richard Brown joined the Red Squadron. Four other physicians were sent to the port towns of Rochester, Portsmouth, Deal and Plymouth.

Author William Cockburn (1697) Although there had been surgeons in the English fleet before, there were no official records of them and these men had nothing to guide them in their new roles. Although there are few records of these new physicians work in the Fleet, "the later establishment of physicians to the fleet on a permanent basis shows that Butt, Brown and their successors adapted themselves to their sea change and performed a useful service."⁸

Now we can see why sea surgeon John Moyle recommended that naval surgeons consult physicians in particularly complex cases - he had served during this time. The physician's role wasn't a standing one, however. The navy's forces were only built up during wars. When William's War came to an end in 1697, the two Squadron physicians were removed from active service, as were most of the sea surgeons.

Physicians who had seen sea service appear to have been well regarded. William Cockburn, physician to the Red Squadron in 1697, wrote a book on problems facing sailors which was popular enough to run to several editions. Having "served for three and a half years and become so highly esteemed that he was among the first physicians to be reappointed when war broke out again in 1702."⁹

It must be noted that, even with these examples of sea physicians, they were vastly outnumbered by the sea surgeons is the Navy. During the Battle at Beachy Head in 1690, the Red Squadron had twenty-one ships in it, the Blue had thirteen ships.¹⁰ This number fluctuated between battles. At the Battle of Barfleur in May of 1691, the Red Squadron had thirty-one ships while the Blue had twelve.¹¹ Still, each ship in the squadron was required to have a surgeon aboard (at least in theory) while the Squadron itself only had one physician. So the surgeons would have had plenty of opportunity to practice the physician's role since the Squadron physician could hardly have been present every time a surgeon needed to make decisions about internal medicines, the patient's diet or humor-based treatments.

¹ John J. Keevil, Medicine and the Navy 1200-1900: Volume I – 1200-1649, 1957, p. 230; ^2,3 Keevil, Volume 1, p. 231; ⁴ Keevil, Volume 1, p. 231-2; ⁴ John J. Keevil, Medicine and the Navy 1200-1900: Volume II – 1640-1714, 1958, p. 38; ⁵ Keevil, Volume II, p. 38-9; ⁶ Keevil, Volume II, p. 176; ⁷ Keevil, Volume II, p. 253; ⁸ Keevil, Volume II, p. 254; ⁹ Keevil, Volume II, p. 255; ¹⁰ Rif Winfield, British Warships in the Age of Sail, 2009, p. xl; ¹¹ Winfield, p. xlii

Sea Physician Thomas Dover

Sea going physicians were primarily a facet of the Navy. While it was highly unusual for a physician to go to sea outside of the Navy, we have one very colorful exception. Physician Thomas Dover
Captains Rogers and Dover on Juan Fernandez,
From Life Aboard a British Privateer, p. 60 not only decided to invest in Woodes Rogers' 1708 privateering voyage, he went with him. Dover had been a practicing physician for twenty-two years in and around Dover when he was asked if he wanted to go with the privateers. He seems to have had a wandering spirit; having made several voyages to the West Indies in Bristol merchant ships as well as going to Port Royal, Jamaica in 1703. "Dover himself welcomed the invitation, and he ever after regarded this voyage as providing him with an experience unique among physicians, entitling him to a special regard and justifying his contempt for those who... went no further afield than Europe."¹

Dover didn't go in his capacity as a physician although he did take "his authority as Second Captain to include supervising the health of the crew."² In addition, he laid claim to a number of medical accomplishments during the voyage, including curtailing the loss of sailors to what he believed was either the plague or a "Fever of the most exaulted Kind"³. He explained in his autobiography that, after capturing Guayaquil, Ecuador,

it happened that not long before the Plague had raged amongst them [the citizens of Guayaquil]. For our better security, therefore, and keeping our people together, we lay in their churches: and likewise brought thither the plunder of the city. We were very much annoyed with the smell of dead bodies. These bodies could hardly be said to be buried, for the Spaniards abroad use no coffins, but throw several dead bodies one upon another, with only a draw board over them: so ‘tis no wonder we received the infection.⁴

While he may not have officially acted as a medical
Photo: Raymond Velasquez
Monument to the Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación y Desengaño man during the journal, Dr. Dover did hold several positions of importance among the crew. He was second Captain of Rogers' ship the Duke, Captain of the Marines and President of the Council which approved all decisions relating to the expedition. During the voyage, he was even named captain of a ship.

This occurred when a Spanish prize named the Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación y Desengaño [Our Lady of the Incarnation and Disappointment] was captured by the privateers in December of 1709. Rogers wanted Dover to captain her. He wrote, "That ‘tis not for the Safety of the risk Spanish Prize, that Capt. Dover [should] command her, because of his Temper is so violent, that capable Men cannot well act under him, and himself is uncapable." However, Rogers goes on to say, "I am content, and desire Capt. Dover may be aboard, and have Power to take Care of the Cargo, and all the Liberty and Freedom in her, he can in reason otherwise desire, and that none may have the like Power on board the Prize but himself."⁵

While Rogers had a vote, his was not the only one. A debate ensued at the end
Artist: William Hogarth - Woodes Rogers (1729) of which it was decided that since Dover had no navigational or sailing skills, Robert Fry and William Stretton would "act in equal Posts, to take Charge of the navigating the Ship, tho' under Capt. Dover, but they were to be no ways molested, hinder'd nor contradicted in their Business by him, whose Duty 'twas to see that nothing should be done contrary to the Interest of the Owners, and Ships Companies in the Nature of an Agent"⁶. As historian Leonard Strong notes, "The title meant a good deal to [Dover], and precious little to anybody else."⁷

Why Dover went on what promised to be a long and difficult voyage is puzzling. Strong speculates:

Possibly he was bored, with Bristol if not with medicine. Maybe he wished to travel, while he was still young enough to be able to enjoy the voyage, and robust enough to stand the changes of climate and the hazards of alien food and insects and disease. Scientific curiosity was probably one of his motives; he may have welcomed the chance to study tropical ailments and observe the health of men on a longer voyage. Possibly he enjoyed the prospect of being addressed as Captain Dover. He may even have regarded the trip as a patriotic service, a view held or professed by some of the participants.⁸

Whatever his reasons it seems to have done him no harm and more than a little good. Dover returned to his wife, children and medical practice two and a half years later with 'renewed vigour'. "The fame of the expedition was such that the three years’ absence does not appear to have damaged his practice; and from this point on... he proceeded unswervingly on his own lines, with increasing scorn for those who differed from him."⁹ He was truly a one-of-a-kind sea-going privateering physician.

¹ John J. Keevil, Medicine and the Navy 1200-1900: Volume II – 1640-1714, 1958, p. 227; ² Leonard A.G. Strong, Dr. Quicksilver, 1660-1742; The Life and Times of Thomas Dover, M.D., 1955, p. 80; ³ Thomas Dover, The Ancient Physician's Legacy to his Country, p. 68-9. ⁴ Dover, p. 67; ⁵ Woodes Rogers, A Cruising Voyage Round the World, 1712, p. 310; ⁶ Rogers, p. 311; ⁷ Strong, p. 128; ⁸ Strong, p. 75; ⁹ Strong, p. 133

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