First Aid

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi All.
I was recently looking for my Advanced First Aid Certificate that I got when became first aider at a large prison job in Sydney. I then got to thinking about whether there had been anything like it back in the 50s and 60s at sea, I know we didn't do any first aid at the Vindi sea school in those days, makes one shudder to think the things that happened in some cases of accidents. I remember a mate of mine falling 60 feet of the mast of a BTC tanker in Port Pirie in South Australia and everyone running around like stuck pigs waiting for the ambulance. Did they bring in any First Aid courses later?


Cheers Des

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[happy daze john in oz]

Recall on the NZSC Paparoa Cpt North tried to run some form of first aid for those interested, not sure if many took it up but I do recall he insisted on a stretcher practice in case any injured seaman had to be evacuated should we have to abandon ship.

[Ivan Cloherty]

Not sure about ratings but all those going up for any mates certificates (2/m 1/m) had to have a First Aid certificate and most companies insisted that their uncertificated 3/m had one also, also did refresher courses and of course there was the 'Ship Captains Medical Guide' with photographs of private parts that should have put you off sex for life

[Colin Wood]

We had to have a first aid cert before you could sit for 2nd mate or mates exam.
As 2nd mate and ship's medical officer had my 1st. customer die. He was a Chinese deck boy who we later found was 67 years old. He was found at the bottom of the companionway from maindeck to tween deck accommodation. I was treating him for concussion as he had a large lump on his head and we were able to land him at Dungerness pilot station but he later died in hospital. Cause of death was listed as a stroke, which had caused him to fall down the stairs.
One thing I learnt on our first aid course, was if you were working on the central west African coast area, carry a large bag of smarties, divided uo by colours, as these were sure cure for everything with the local workers. On the iron ore run from Pepple, Monrovia & Conakry found this very true.

[Doc Vernon]

It was I suppose just a Coincidence that i held a First Aid Certificate when i applied at the UCL Office in Cape Town for the job on the old Dunnottar Castle,not that the Stewards had to have them ,but it sort of came in handy when i told the Captain when going Aboard that i did carry one!
He was i think impressed as he commented that such a Certificate would always come in useful if an Emergency arose@

I got mine whilst on the SAR&H working as a Train Steward on the runs between Cape Town ,Durban and Johannesburg.
Some great times there!
Cheers

[Captain Kong]

We had to have a First Aid At Sea Certificate when taking Mates and a Ship Captains Medical Certificate for Masters.
Brian

[John Arton]

With Indian crew an Aspirin and a Band Aid seemed to cure most ailments.
I had one Indian sailor who got an infection and this required him to take a broad based anti-biotic, tetracycline. He refused to take them as this anti-biotic was used to treat "dirty diseases" (his words), i.e sexually transmitted diseases. In the end had to get the deck serang to order him to take the medicines. Next port (we were on the Mexican coast at the time) I sent him to the docs to get checked out and he came back beaming saying the shore doctor had given him the "correct medicine sahib", looking at it I saw it was "tetracycline". Sometimes treating the Indian crew was almost laughable. The biggest problem was that they often joined with loads of their own potions and lotions which mainly seemed to make them either throw up or crap their bowels away. They were always self medicating so by the time they eventually decided to see me they were often suffering worse than if they had come as soon as their symptom's developed.
We had on Indian sailor, who every time he came to the medical locker for any ailment, used to flourish a flowery certificate from a Bombay doctor that stated "This man is certified perfectly sane after examination by Doctor XXX" . Why he would want such a certificate I had no idea.
The alcoholic doctor on the E of Canada was making a fortune, charging passenger £1 for sea sickness tablets and strangely enough had many female passengers who would do an Atlantic crossing just so that they could get to see their favourite doctor. These were ladies of a certain age, mainly sailing first class, who must have liked him for his bed side manners rather than his medical expertise.
The first aid at sea and ships captain medical (latterly "Advanced medical training") only covered the basics mainly. The Ships Captain medical was based around the ships captain medical guide and basically taught you how to use that guide to correctly identify and treat any illness, along with stitching wounds and CPR. It was a one week course and quite laughable compared to the Norwegian equivalent where they had to do a months training to get them almost up to paramedical standards and included time spent in a hospitals A and E department.
rgds
JA

[Ivan Cloherty]

Two remedies guaranteed not to make the shirkers come back, black draught and/or whitefields ointment, both made you run, one to the toilet the other to a cold shower

[Keith Tindell]

I was on a cargo ship circa 1960 when two engineers had a punch up (they were best buddies normally), and one had his top lip split right up to his nose, the skipper did a stitch job on him, which looked quite good. On arrival in Oz the skipper sent him to the hospital in Adelaide to get checked, and the surgeon there examined the work of the skipper, and stated he could not of made a better job himself. Skipper was well chuffed, KT

[Keith Tindell]

On the Stirling Castle late April 1959, doing life boat drill on leaving Capetown, i threw the griping wire off, and before i could get clear, the pratt on the winch lowered the boat in its tracks, and took the end of my index finger with it. Went into the ships hospital to be seen by the ships doctor , (who mostly seemed pissed), and was bandaged up ready for hospital in Southampton, some two weeks later, so spent the rest of the trip as a passenger, the only time i can claim to have been on a cruise, KT