As a general rule, it was the captains who were the crew doctors and 

 who arranged, in the exercise of this function, which could only be subsid- 

 iary, the cabinet of medicines, shipment of which was required on all ves- 

 sels. 



In order to prepare them to assume this charge, the captains received 

 some lessons in elementary hygiene at the School of Hydrography which con- 

 stituted their very meagre medical baggage; (this was) the very mediocre 

 solution of a question of major importance with which necessity obliged con- 

 tentment. 



The crews of the boats in the coast fishery had less to suffer from this 

 precarious medical care than the bank fishermen. The landing wharfs were 

 close together and it was thus possible to put to common use the surgeons 

 available. Moreover, working conditions were less rigorous on shore than 

 on the bank, since the crews could sleep on land in cabins, having no worry 

 about the security of their boat solidly anchored in the bay, and only going 

 out ir the long-boats when the weather permitted. 



On the bank, on the contrary, the vessel stayed in the open sea for all 

 the fishing season, with all the customary risks of sea fortune, aggravated 

 by the risk of encountering, at night or in the fog, drifting ice; not the great 

 icebergs, for they were stopped at the edge of the banks by their enormous 

 draft of water, but the smaller bergs that the fishermen called bourguignons 

 (literally: Burgundians) of a size attaining many thousands of tons, the shock 

 of which constituted a mortal danger to the encountering vessel. 



Moreover, while on the shore the fish was caught by net only during this 

 epoch, the hook fishery created, for the bank fishermen, an additional risk 

 which became even more serious in the 19th century with the handling of in- 

 numerable hooks on bottom lines, the line trawls. The fishermen were sub- 

 ject to frequent piercing by hooks, both in baiting their lines, and hooking 

 themselves with the gaffs. These hooks were often infected by the use of ripe 

 bait which the fishermen considered the most efficacious. Also these punc- 

 tures often led to serious results, infections and blood poisioning, which have 

 always constituted the most dangerous professional risks for the bank fisher- 

 men. In such cases, the very modest medical knowledge of the captains was 

 often insufficient. By lack of care or the application of useless remedies, 

 these infections often led to grave consequences. Many men died after weeks 

 of terrible suffering. Others became crippled after surviving a lucky ampu- 

 tation. 



36 



