PAGE 1/2/3/4/5/6/7

    But Gobineau seems to scorn such dangers; he notes the presence of a doctor and emphasizes just how much the shore workers' health is to be envied. Charles de la Morandiere, however, taking up the same question some one hundred years later, does not treat it so lightly. He discusses at length the problems of recruiting doctors for service on the French Shore, their duties and their efficiency. While various ministerial edicts of the period required the presence of doctors on board vessels and on shore bases, the law was not always obeyed. Quoting a report made by a Captain Mer of the French naval station in Newfoundland, de la Morandière notes that:

    Captain Mer tells how the fishing admiral came for him, bringing a fisherman whose hand was in a very bad state. In fact it was in such a bad state that a finger had to be amputated. He was a master-capliner.

    I asked the fishing admiral why no doctor was available. He replied: the owners could not get one. Which means, quite simply: the owners did not want the expense.

    During the nineteenth century, other French naval officers commented on the absence of doctors. In 1872, a report cited by de la Morandière noted that cases of scurvy, lung infections and typhoid fever were almost always fatal for want of adequate treatment, and because of the lack of basic care, normally harmless cuts might lead to amputation.