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the carefully-prepared and proper kind of food, and all else that helps to lessen suffering in many a home on shore. But at sea! Off Cape Horn, out in the wide Pacific, where is the doctor? Thousands of miles away! Where is the peace and quiet so necessary in serious illness? There may be quiet, but as likely as not there may be the momentary crashing of the ship into mighty waves, throwing her about like a cork, with the water swishing and rushing along the decks; the creaking and straining of the vessel, and the wind whistling through the rigging, mingled likely enough with hoarse words of command; and the sailors singing and shouting as they haul on some ropes or try to take in sail.

If there is no peace or quiet to the healthy in bad weather, what must it be to the sick? No woman's tender hand will in all probability ever soothe that feverish head, no real skill or proper treatment in difficult cases can be given. Without doubt large numbers of captains do all that can be done; but their knowledge can only be limited, and on certain ships sick men are certainly treated very scantily indeed. No words can describe the sufferings of those who get ill or are injured on these long-voyage ships, and with the

suffering there is the additional mental trouble that no qualified doctor can be obtained, and not infrequently proper food and stimulant is hard to obtain. Many a wistful thought has gone from some dying boy or sailor as he lay in his bunk, knocked about on the waste of waters, slowly and painfully breathing out his life, to some quiet home in peaceful old England, which he knows too well he has lost sight of for ever.

The captain of a large four-masted ship told the writer that, a week or two after he left a certain port, small-pox broke out on his ship, and within a short time thirty out of the thirty-two men and boys on board the ship were down with small-pox, and being a sailing-ship they had to, and did, man and work the ship. Imagine, you who live in luxury and comfort on shore, what this means!

Another large sailing ship last year left a certain port in South America, and soon after she sailed fever broke out on board, and in a short time fourteen of the crew of twentyeight men and boys on board the ship lay dead.

A captain of a large ship regularly trading to San Francisco told the writer that soon after leaving port, after lying for some time alongside a wharf notorious for the amount

of sewage discharged near it, typhoid fever broke out amongst his sailors, and in a short time ten out of a total of sixteen or eighteen men before the mast were down with it, several being delirious at the same time.

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These are only odd cases, but what could be told of the ships that trade to Santos and other yellow-fever ports! Consider the cases given of those three ships. The absence of proper skill and nursing; the terrible loneliness and despair of the situation, with many men sick, and others catching the infection, and around them the boundless ocean. lightful, no doubt, it is to read and talk about the ocean and the water dancing in the sunlight, and the roving, free life of a sailor. These things are all very well on a luxurious pleasure-yacht or a 10,000-ton liner, though it is hard enough on these many a time; but what beauty is there in the ocean, what freedom in the lives of those on board a fever-stricken sailing-ship, with no prospect of getting assistance possibly for two months or more?

In connection with accidents of various kinds at sea, it may be mentioned what an admirable work the Missions to Seamen Society are doing at a number of their In

stitutes round the coast of England. Certain doctors in London, Liverpool, Sunderland, Shields, and a number of other ports, from the pure love of humanity, and without remuneration for the loss to them of valuable time, come down week by week to the various Seamen's Institutes, and there give most practical lectures on the work of the St. John's Ambulance Association to classes composed of officers, apprentices, and seamen, teaching them how to render aid to the injured. A very considerable and increasing number of men who go to sea have, through these lectures, gained the certificate of the St. John's Ambulance work. This means now that on many ships there will soon be found men who understand, at any rate, how to render some practical aid, and give some alleviation. of pain to the injured, which will be not only a great benefit in itself, but also a great assistance to a captain, who may be the only man on board who has even rudimentary knowledge on such matters. It is well for people on shore to understand that only passenger-boats carry a doctor, and that the rank and file of the merchant service have in illness and accident to depend upon themselves, and not upon professional skill.

CHAPTER XV.

CONCLUSION.

WHAT, it may be asked, were the results of such a mission-work as we have attempted to describe? Had it any restraining effect on any seamen or apprentices in a port of such temptation as San Francisco?

With regard to apprentices, we can give the following very satisfactory statistics: Previous to the opening of the Seamen's Institute, and the work in connection therewith, apprentices used to desert their ships at the rate of some sixty a year, with results to themselves which have been more or less touched upon. During the five years subsequent to the work being started, desertions amongst these young men dropped to an average of about twelve a year, and it is a significant fact that this decrease began the very month the Institute was opened. In the

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