Medical journal of HMS Dido, from 25 August to 31 December 1855 by John Turner Caddy,...

ADM 101/96/5B

1855

Medical journal of HMS Dido, from 25 August to 31 December 1855 by John Turner Caddy, Surgeon, during which time the ship was employed on the Pacific Station.

[Note: ADM 101/96/5, 5A and 5B are produced as a single document: order as ADM 101/96/5].

Folios 1-3: Copy of sick list.

Folios 3-4: case no. 1, Robert Herd, aged 24, Able Seaman; taken ill at Port of San Francisco; sick or hurt, primary syphilis, contracted from an Indian woman at Vancouver’s Island, there was a small indolent chancre by the side of frenulum preputii; put on sick list 25 August 1855, discharged 14 October 1855 to duty.

Folios 4-5: case no. 2, David Fitzgerald, aged 24, Able Seaman; taken ill at Port of San Francisco; sick or hurt, primary syphilis and open bubo, has a chancre on the right side and the inner surface of the prepuce; put on sick list 25 August 1855, discharged 24 October 1855 to duty.

Folios 5-6: case no. 3, George Owen, aged 24, Private Marine; taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, catarrh; put on sick list 3 September 1855, discharged 12 September 1855 to duty.

Folio 6: case no. 4, Frederick Simpson, aged 24, Private Marine; taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, diarrhoea; put on sick list 14 September 1855, discharged 19 September 1855 to duty.

Folios 6-7: case no. 5, James Larrard, aged 20, Captain’s Steward; taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, dysentery, he was in a merchant ship in the East Indies in the culinary department, complained since this morning of having five liquid evacuations by stool with tenesmus, scalding and tinged of blood; put on sick list 23 September 1855, discharged 27 September 1855 to duty.

Folio 7: case no. 6, Robert Cole, aged 27, Private Marine; taken ill at Honoruru [Honolulu]; sick or hurt, diarrhoea; put on sick list 28 September 1855, discharged 7 October 1855 to duty.

Folios 7-8: case no. 7, William Crowhurst, aged 25, Able Seaman; taken ill at Honoruru [Honolulu]; sick or hurt, simple fracture of the middle third of the metacarpal bone of the ring finger of the left hand, as he stated by falling into the hold, the Surgeon remarked this statement of the cause of the injury is a gross falsehood – according to the Surgeon this patient in a state of intoxication, struck Samuel Morgan a seaman over the head with his fist and thus produced the fracture ; put on sick list 30 September 1855, discharged 7 November 1855 to duty.

Folio 8: case no. 8, James Holmes, aged 33, Caulker; taken ill at Honoruru [Honolulu]; sick or hurt, diarrhoea ; put on sick list 1 October 1855, discharged 7 November 1855 to duty.

Folios 8-9: case no. 9, James Edney, aged 20, Private Marine; taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, primary syphilis; put on sick list 5 October 1855, discharged 18 November 1855 to duty.

Folios 9-10: case no. 10, James Ralph, aged 37, Gunroom Steward; taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, febris, was hard at work and much exposed in the sun getting supplies for going to sea, had much purging with tenesmus attended with frontal headache; put on sick list 6 October 1855, discharged 18 October 1855 to duty.

Folios 10-11: case no. 11, Samuel Morgan, aged 38, Able Seaman; taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, febris, while at wheel became faint and sudden vertigo and alternate rigors and sweating; put on sick list 8 October 1855, discharged 18 October 1855 to duty.

Folio 11: case no. 12, David Williams, aged 32, Boatswain’s Mate; taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, wound lacerated, on the palmar surface of the left thumb caused by the bite of a young shark recently captured; put on sick list 15 October 1855, discharged 21 October 1855 to duty.

Folios 11-13: case no. 13, Mr. John Waddell, aged 37, Gunner; taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, laryngitis and laryngotracheotomy he was a very temperate and exemplary warrant officer, he was passed on to the Surgeon’s predecessor Mr. Barnard, who intended to bring the patient forward for survey, but for his own personal request, that as the ship was shortly expected to go home, he wished to remain and pay off in the Dido, according to the Surgeon he viewed his case as one of debility, as more of a disease of blood, as evidenced by the paleness of the mucous membrane of the mouth; put on sick list 28 October 1855, died 18 November 1855.

Folios 13-14: case no. 14, Henry Cameron, aged 16, Boy; taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, ulcer on the dorsum of the left foot caused by a fall of marling spike; put on sick list 3 November 1855, discharged 11 December 1855 to duty.

Folio 15: case no. 15, Christopher Pellon, aged 24, Able Seaman; taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, ulcer on the dorsum of the left foot apparently caused by mosquito bites; put on sick list 17 November 1855, discharged 11 December 1855 to duty.

Folios 14-15: case no. 16, Thomas Dalrymple, aged 19, Ordinary Seaman; taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, febris cum bronchitis; put on sick list 24 November 1855, discharged 19 December 1855 to duty.

Folio 15: case no. 17, Walter Cannon, aged 19 [39?], Quarter Master; taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, ulcers on the feet; put on sick list 28 November 1855, discharged 2 December 1855 to duty.

Folios 15-16: case no. 18, William Lightwood, aged 43, Armourer; taken ill at sea; sick or hurt, ulcers of left lower extremities over the middle of the tibia; put on sick list 29 November 1855, discharged 26 December 1855 to duty. Signed: John Turner Caddy, Surgeon. Folio 16: Nosological return of cases mentioned in the journal.

Folio 17: List of men who received wounds or hurts during the period of this journal. No. on the ship’s book 62, William Crowhurst, aged 25, Able Seaman; pension not granted; nature of hurts, simple fracture of metacarpal bone of the ring finger in a state of intoxication by striking his hand against the head of Samuel Morgan, on 29 September 1855. No. on the ship’s book 41, William David, aged 32, Boatswain’s Mate; pension not granted; nature of hurts, small lacerated wound of the palmar surface of the thumb caused by the bite of a captured shark, on 14 October 1855. Signed: John Turner Caddy, Surgeon.

Folios 17-18: Tables of medical statistics. Folios 18-28: Surgeon’s general remarks. The medical charge of the Dido was passed on to him on 25 August 1855 per commission from the Commander in Chief as Mr. Barnard the former Surgeon was invalided. According to him the intention of the Commander in Chief was to send the Dido amongst the island route in the Pacific as requested in the report by Her Majesty’s Consul General at Honolulu, Sandwich Islands for a man of war to visit the Samoan Group, where the property of British subjects were attacked by the Natives. The ship was in the command of Captain W. H. A. Morshead C. B. and was commissioned on 28 August 1851, the Surgeon briefly mentions the dimensions of the ship together with the complement of the ship’s company, he also stated that his predecessor Mr. Barnard had excellent arrangements for the events of battle, in which the Captain’s cabin would be the place of reception for wounded men. There was kept packed a box containing all surgical appliances for boat service and 4 cots with beds were kept suspended ready for an emergency. The Surgeon mentioned that the chaplain of HMS Juno joined the Dido, in which the Assistant Surgeon Dyas was verbally ordered to vacate the cabin for the said Chaplain (the Revd. James Lang). Also includes remarks about the customs, dietary, topography, volcano of Samoa, the Sandwich Islands, and also a medical history of the expedition to the Polynesian Islands.

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