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A VICTORIAN surgeon will be available to discuss medical complaints with visitors over the weekend (August 30 and 31) – as part of the events programme at Brunel’s ss Great Britain. |
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They may be well advised to seek a second opinion as the surgeon is a re-enactor, and medicine has come a long way since a doctor last practised on board the ss Great Britain in the middle 1800s.
The event is one of a number of special activities running throughout the summer holidays, including lessons in etiquette, games on the Weather Deck, children’s trails, and the opportunity to meet Mr Brunel – all included in admission.
Visitors will find the Surgeon in his quarters, as well as enjoying the best in First Class accommodation, in the Promenade Deck and First Class Dining Saloon, and caring for poorer ‘passengers’ in Steerage.
The ss Great Britain Trust’s Director of Museum and Educational Services, Rhian Tritton, commented: “I am very much looking forward to finding out what medical advice the Victorian surgeon has to give.
“Life was quite hard going for the ship’s doctor, with plenty to keep him busy from seasickness and child birth, to highly contagious outbreaks of typhoid.
“Our special events really help to bring the ship’s true stories to life. It is intriguing to find out how passengers and crew lived on board ship during the mid to late 1800s.”
The Victorian surgeon will make a return visit to Brunel’s ss Great Britain on September 13 and 14, with the Crimean War Trooper re-enactors, and on October 25 and 26.
Highlights of a visit to Brunel’s ss Great Britain also include descending under the glass ‘sea’, fascinating audio tours, hands-on interactives in the Dockyard Museum, and the new Crimean War horse display in the Forward Hold of the ship.
Admission allows for FREE unlimited return visits for a year, which is proving especially popular with families.
Visitors can also take pictures and videos, and upload them on to the Brunel’s ss Great Britain website www.ssgreatbritain.org.
• Future events include October 25 to November 4 Gruesome Great Britain trails and Mr Brunel (except Monday); Catsheads! Rats’ tales! October 25, 27, 30, and November 1 & 2; and Fashion Victims on October 31. See www.ssgreatbritain.org for further details.
HISTORIC SICK NOTES:
Whilst the Victorian ship benefited from high levels of hygiene, enforced by captains and crew members, and a design that allowed for good ventilation, the ss Great Britain’s reports and those of other vessels make for shocking reading for the modern-day doctor.
For example mortality rates on ships to Australia chartered by the Emigration Commission were as high as 2% between 1848 and 1885. A voyage on board the ss Great Britain, powered by wind and engine, would take 62 days to Australia. Other ships, relying only on sail, could take 120 days or more.
Stepping back in time, 150 years ago, medical problems dealt with by the ss Great Britain’s surgeon, 28-year-old Samuel Archer, included:
• Several hundred seasick cavalry troopers, en route to the Sepoy Wars (the Indian Mutiny). In extreme cases seasickness could lead to death
• “Industrial” accidents, including amputations of fingers, and a hand, following accidents in the rigging
• The biggest killers on board ship were measles, diarrhoea-related illnesses, TB and other respiratory diseases. Wealthy patients would often be sent to sea on a long voyage as a last-ditch attempt to save them
• Child mortality was high in Victorian times, and the ship registered distressingly high numbers of deaths of newborn babies
• Mental health problems, resulted in at least one suicide when a passenger threw himself over board
And in 1855, the ship lost three crew to smallpox, just before docking to Australia, necessitating a two-week quarantine at anchor for all passengers.
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