SAILOR FISHERMEN OF NEW ENGLAND. 93 



Marine hospitals. — There is no provision for the reception of invalided fishermen into 

 hospitals. Vessels sailing under a fishing license pay no hospital dues, and so far as we can learn 

 have no hospital privileges. In early colonial datys New England fishing vessels were obliged to 

 contribute to the support of the Greenwich Hospital in England, but this abuse was remedied in 

 17G0 upon the representations of Mr. Fairfax, collector of Salem.* 



The hospital at Halifax, Nova Scotia, affords a refuge to our fishermen such as they cannot 

 find in any of our own ports. 



Diseases of whalemen and sealers. — Scurvj appears to be the commonest disease among 

 the crews of whaling vessels. This is caused by an excess of salt in their food, and usually begins 

 to show itself about six or eight months after the vessel has left the home port. The principal 

 symptoms of scurvy among the men belonging to the South Sea whaling vessels is in the swelling 

 up and softening of the limbs of the sufferer. This disease affects the crews of whalers in the 

 Arctic Seas in a very different way, the limbs of the sufferers turning black and shriveling in size. 

 Scurvy often leaves sequelaj which render the victims lame for life. 



The venereal disease is not unusual on whalers for a few mouths after a stay in port : This 

 disease is rarely met with among the crews of the fishing vessels. 



The sealing crews from Stonington and New London engaged in the capture of fur seals and 

 sea elephants in the Antarctic, about Cape Horn, and in the Southern Indian Ocean, are subject to 

 disease from exposure, and, worst of all, they are afflicted with scurvy. A veteran sealer tells us 

 that in all his experience he never had his crew suffer from scurvy, because he required them to 

 subsist largely on seal meat, which lie considers a sure preventive of that disease. 



In cases of sickness on board of whaling vessels the captain and mate have charge of the sick. 

 Medicine chests are carried, usually larger than those on the Gloucester fishing vessels, and the 

 patients are prescribed for by the aid of an accompanying book, which contains instructions 

 sufficiently explicit to enable any man of intelligence to treat such sicknesses as ordinarily afflict 

 men at sea. 



Longevity.! — In former days, when the mackerel fishery was carried on by hand lining, it 

 was not infrequent for boys to begin their fishing life at ten or twelve years of age, and two or 

 three such were usually found on every mackerel vessel; but at present boys are rarely shipped 

 until they have attained to manly stature and the age of fifteen or sixteen. A smart young man 

 of American parentage is likely to have won his position as master before he is twenty five years 



spirits of camphor; -Jii, spirits of hartshorn; 27, tincture of rhubarb; 28, tincture of bails : 29, wij f antimony; 30, 



mercurial solution ; 31, muriatic tincture of iron ; 32, Seidlitz mixture; 33, castor-nil ; 34, purging pil's; 35, gum arabic; 

 36, blue pills; 37, opium pills; 38, fever powders; 39, calomel and jalap; 40, Dover's powders; 11, quinine; 42, ipecac; 

 43, calomel; 44, tincture of myrrh: 4."., rhubarb; 4ii, magnesia : 47, Peruvian bark; 48, tartar emetic; 49, powdered 

 cubehs; 50, nitrate of potash ; 51, sugar of lead : 52, white vitriol ; 5::, blue vitriol ; 51, tartaric acid; ."5. red precipi- 

 tate; 56, alum ; 57. gum camphor; 58, iodide, of potash ; 59, lunar caustic ; 62, lancet ; 63, syringe ; 64, the Mariner's 

 Medical Guide. Gloucester, Mass., 1880. 



* November 7, 1733.— A letter from the General Court to their agent, Francis Wilkes, in London, contains this 



passage: " Ever since the tax upon seamen called the six-pennj duty for Greenwich Hospital has 1 a required her 



there has beeu some uneasiness, but, of late it lias increased very much upon the demand of it from fishing vessels 

 that go out a tishiug and many times return at night, ami never go to any other port, but return into tie' harbors of 

 Marblehead, Salem, Gloucester," &c. Shortly before this time, William Fairfax, collector of Salem, summoned some 

 of our fishermen for non-compliance with the custom. Suits against them wore abated in our courts. Mr. Fairfax 

 sent a representation of the matter to the British authorities. No further demand of the kind was made I'm the 

 hospital money to 1760, as a Boston Gazette of that year certifies. Fell's Annals of Salem, vol. ii, 2d ed., p. 217. 



tMr. William Abbott, of Rockport, Mass., !U years old, is very active and .smart. He frequently goes out in Lis 

 dory fishing, and into the woods nearly every day to bring out his burden of fire-wood. — Capo Ann Advertiser, Apni 

 15, 1881. 



Capt. John Paine. Havender, of Provincetown, lias made fiftj eight voyages iu the Grand Bank.- Gloui 

 Telegraph, April IB, 1870. 



