Maritime Measure

1 British cable = 608 feet = 1/10 nautical mile
1 American cable = 720 feet
1 league = 3 nautical miles = 1/20 degree
1 statute mile = 5,280 feet = 320 rods = 1,760 yards = 1.6 kilometers
1 nautical mile = 6,076 feet = 1,852 meters = 1 minute of latitude
1 furlong = 1/8 statute mile = 40 rods = 220 yards = 201.7 meters
1 degree of latitude = 362,753 feet = 20 leagues = 60 nautical miles
1 fathom = 6 feet = 1.82 meters
1 knot = 1 nautical mile per hour = 1.15 statute miles per hour = 101.27 feet per minute = 1.8 kilometers per hour

Royal Navy Pay Scale

*These figures do not include 'Prize Money'.

Year----                           1793 p.a            1806 p.a

Landsman                       £10.60                N/A

Ordinary Seaman            £11.30                N/A

Able Seaman                  £14.00                £20.00

Petty Officers                 £20-27.00           N/A

Master                            N/A                    £100.00

Surgeons                        £60.00                £168.00

Ship's Carpenter            N/A                    £70.00

Ship's Gunner                N/A                    £58.00

Ship's Bosun                  £36.00                £58.00

Midshipman                   £22.50                N/A

Lieutenant                      £100.00               N/A

Commander                   £200.00              N/A

Captain (1st Rate)          £336                    £400.00

Captain (6th Rate)         £100.80               N/A

From the Surgeon's Personal Log 10

Whilst cleaning out a desk drawer a few days ago, I discover'd the old letter of introduction writ for me by the hand of my captain aboard the Zealous. Along with it was the medal for my service at the Battle of the Nile, for which my friends are always desirous to have an antic-dote.

To answer the initial question I am oft asked, No, I was not fortunate enough to meet Lord Nelson. Everyone seems to have the impression that if you served at the Nile, you were shoulder to shoulder with the man himself for the entirety of the action. Far from it, I am afraid I never laid eyes upon him, except perhaps from afar.

As a surgeon, during the heat of the action I was always below deck tending the wounded. I can tell you, it was all shouting, everyone was shouting, and smoke and fire and blood, so much blood. I recall the great crack and cheer that signaled the falling of the Guerrier's foremast could be heard belowdeck. I remember Cuddy staggered down into the cockpit when the noise above decks had ceased. He was covered from waist to foot in blood... "You are undone!" says I.

Cuddy was not his jovial self that day, instead soberly says, "Tis not my blood I wear Doctor."

The Zealous was fortunate in that she and her crew did not receive the number of casualties of the other ships of the British force.

___________

Theseus.—5 Seamen killed; 1 Officer, 24 Seamen, 5 Marines wounded. —Total 35.

Alexander.—1 Officer, 13 Seamen killed; 5 Officers, 48 Seamen, 5 Marines , wounded.—Total 72.

Vanguard.—3 Officers, 20 Seamen, 7 Marines, killed; 7 Officers, 60 Seamen, 8 Marines, wounded.—Total 105.


Minotaur.—2 Officers, 18 Seamen, 3 Marines, killed, 4 Officers, 54 Seamen, 6 Marines, wounded.—Total 87.

Swiftsure.—7 Seamen killed; 1 Officer, 1 9 Seamen, 2 Marines, wounded.—Total 29.

Audacious.—1 Seaman killed; 2 Officers, 31 Seamen, 2 Marines, wounded.—Total 36.

Defence.—3 Seamen, 1 Marine, killed; 9 Seamen, 2 Marines, wounded.—Total 15.

Zealous.—1 Seaman killed; 7 Seamen wounded.—Total 8.

Orion.—1 Officer, 11 Seamen, 1 Marine killed; 5 Officers, 18 Seamen, 6 Marines, wounded.—Total 42.

Goliath.—2 Officers, 12 Seamen, 7 Marines, killed; 4 Officers, 28 Seamen, 9 Marines, wounded.—Total 62.

Majestic.—3 Officers, 33 Seamen, 14 Marines, killed; 3 Officers, 124 Seamen, 16 Marines, wounded.—Total 193.

Bellerophon.—4 Officers, 32 Seamen, 13 Marines, killed; 5 Officers, 126 Seamen, 17 Marines, wounded.—Total 197.

Leander.—14 Seamen wounded.

___________

Total.—16 Officers, 156 Seamen, 46 Marines, killed; 37 Officers, 562 Seamen, 78 Marines wounded.—Total, 895.

It is a gruesome tale and not one I wish to recall.

From the Surgeon's Personal Log 9

WHEN I was two and twenty years of age, in the Year of our Lord Seventeen hundred and Ninety Eight, I was accepted as a Ship's Surgeon aboard the HMS Zealous, a 74-gun ship of the line, under Captain Samuel Hood.

While aboard, that first year I met and befriended Midshipman Thomas Cuthbert... those of the Midshipmen's berth all called him 'Cuddy'.

Cuddy was a most amiable fellow, well read and quite proficient as an officer, we were even about of the same age. He could laugh at nigh anything. There was nothing that he could not gamble on, he must have lost three years wages over the course of our service together. And a stout lover of mirth and good liquor.

He was every bit the spitting image of Thomas Rowlandson's vision of a midshipman circa 1799, he even had the long golden locks.

I RECALL once while in a foreign port, we were both quite in our cups. Cuddy and I sang the night away playing cards and gambling in a nearby tavern. I won four if HIS pounds that night...

Cuddy became so intoxicated that I had to carry him on my back to return us both to the ship. On the way, I lost my footing and staggered, tumbling into the gutter. We both had bits of filth in our hair and on our faces, and I completely ruined the sleeve on my nice blue jacket.

The splash in the face was just what Cuddy needed, and he woke up laughing. I implored him to rise, and together, we made our way back to the docks.

We eventually made it back to the ship via long boat, stinking of alcohol and the gutter. The Captain stopped us before we could attempt to climb up the side, claiming he could smell us from shore. Says he, "What has become of your cloathing Gentlemen?"

I, being the more sober of the two, called up the side, "We met with a bit of misfortune in town, and had a spill in the gutter Sir."

"You gentlemen may not board until you've had a bath to wash off the stink." Captain Hood exclaimed.

Cuddy, who was always very obliging, immediately stripped naked and dove into the water there by the ship. What could I do but join him? And do you know, Captain Hood even had the bosun throw down a bit of soap to aid in the process.

Ah younger days!

From the Medical Journal 6

 A young sailor, about twenty years of age, in running hastily out from below deck, struck the crown of his head with great violence against a beam. -- He was stunned with the blow, but after a few minutes, was able to go about his business, and continued apparently well for three or four days, when he complained of a giddiness and pain in his head, attended with a slight fever. Under these circumstances, I was applied to for assistance, and, after enquiring into the history of the case, and examining his head, where no appearance of contusion was observable, I took sixteen ounces of blood from his arm, gave him a gentle purge, and ordered a low diluting diet, which soon removed all his complaints, and he continued perfectly easy for ten or twelve days, and were as speedily relieved by the same remedies. 

--- In short, he continued to suffer attacks of pain in his head with a fever, every twelve to fourteen days for near three months, and was often relieved by gentle evacuations, until the eightieth day from the accident, when he suddenly became perfectly frantic and delirious, with a hard quick pulse, and most of the symptoms usually attendant on an inflammation of the dura mater.

---A copious bleeding, and several glysters afforded him very little relief, and as his situation was then to the last degree threatening, I was induced to examine the scalp with great attention, and thought I was sensible of some small degree of thickening on the part, where he first struck his head, and which he always pointed out, while sensible, as particularly painful : 

Trepanning Tools

Upon this I made two semi-circular incisions, and removed a sufficient portion of the scalp, with the pericranium, which adhered pretty firmly ; --- then perforating the bone, and taking out a circular piece, I was suprized to find only a slight degree of inflammation upon the dura mater, which I immediately divided with the point of a lancet, but without any discharge of blood or matter ; 

---- all his dangerous symptoms disappeared the next day, returned no more, and he was cured in the usual time, without any other remarkable circumstance.

Taken mostly from "Plain concise practical remarks on the treatment of wounds and fractures" By John Jones, M. D. Published in Philadelphia: Printed and Sold by Robert Bell in Third Street, 1776

From the Medical Journal 4

John Downie, aged 26,
Marine; headache

Taken ill 15 Nov’r at Cove,
discharged to duty 25 Nov’r.

This is a coltish drunken fellow of such a ghastly wretched appearance in general that it is a difficult matter to ascertain at anytime whether he is in health or otherwise especially if it is convenient for him to affect indisposition - which is very often the case. He has been bred a butcher and from the facilities of his early years he has acquired habits that are in some degree rare - he can imitate with the greatest possible exactness the howling of a pack of hounds, the crowing of a cock, the bellowing of a bull, cow or calf and a number of other animals. On account of these curious qualifications he is often solicited by his shipmates to give a specimen of his talents and a glass of grog is of course the reward. I presume he has been drunk in consequence of something of this kind and has affected sickness to avoid punishment. He says his head aches

I have given him an emetic and will stop his grog till he is better.

 Originally Recorded by: Mr. Thomas Simpson, Surgeon, HMS Arethusa, 1805

From the Surgeon's Personal Log 7

It has been miserable and cold for some weeks now, with fat, heavy snowflakes falling several days this week. I have begun to notice the sniffles and coughs among the men that accompany said weather.

Yesterday, while the Midshipmen were about their lessons on deck, I took note that not a one wore their scarves or gloves even though I could very clearly see their breath in the frigid air. I stopped and scolded them every one saying, "Gentlemen, it is too cold to be on deck without the proper cloathes. I demand that you go below and wrap up proper."

The Lieutenant giving the lesson agreed and sent them all down immediately to get more properly attired.

We have been in and out of Halifax and the North American Station for quite a while now, and so I have taken up my copy of Turnbull's 'Naval Surgeon' in an effort to keep up the health of the men in this part of the world. While Turnbull does not specifically cover the maintaining of the men's health in the North American Station, he does have some suggestions on the High Northern Latitudes which at this time of year, do bear some similarities. Given the cold and wet of this current latitude, and Turnbull's suggestions, I shall make the following recommendations to Capt Freymann:

• That all men's clothing should consist of the warmest flannel covering as can be procured, especially whilst on deck. Each man should wear a proper scarf, gloves and shoes which has them.

• That there be a weekly increase in the amount of meat in the diet of the men as stores can afford

• That an increase in the amount of spirituous liquor should be allowed, with doses of citric acid properly mixed in with the allowance to prevent Scurvy.