Article ID: CBB001320603

“As His Was Not a Surgical Case It Was Not My Duty to Attend Him”: The Surgeon's Role in the Nineteenth-Century Royal Dockyards (2013)

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Despite a varied historical literature on the nineteenth-century royal dockyards, very little has been written about the health issues associated with naval shipbuilding or the healthcare facilities that were provided for dockworkers in the period. This article focuses mainly on the latter. Drawing on archival sources from the home dockyards, an examination is made of the duties and responsibilities of dockyard surgeons. These are found to have expanded considerably as healthcare provision became steadily more comprehensive. It is argued that as providers to a Despite a varied historical literature on the nineteenth-century royal dockyards, very little has been written about the health issues associated with naval shipbuilding or the healthcare facilities that were provided for dockworkers in the period. This article focuses mainly on the latter. Drawing on archival sources from the home dockyards, an examination is made of the duties and responsibilities of dockyard surgeons. These are found to have expanded considerably as healthcare provision became steadily more comprehensive. It is argued that as providers to a civilian workforce, the naval authorities were in the vanguard when it came to implementing perceived advances in medical practice. It is also contended, however, that while many dockworkers benefited as a result, this positive appraisal needs to be set against the more ambiguous aspects of the surgeon's role. Although surgeons treated the sick and injured, their growing prominence in other dockyard matters, such as retirement and the policing of sickness, is shown to have created tension in their relationship with the workforce.

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https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001320603/

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Authors & Contributors
Calvo-Calvo, Manuel-Ángel
Waddington, Keir
Tuten, James H.
Siena, Kevin P.
Samama, Evelyne
Nakamura, Ellen Gardner
Concepts
Physicians; doctors
Surgery
Medicine and society
Medicine and the military; medicine in war
Health care
Medicine
Time Periods
19th century
18th century
20th century
Ancient
20th century, early
20th century, late
Places
Great Britain
United States
Greece
England
Scotland
Sweden
Institutions
Royal College of Surgeons, London
Great Britain. Royal Navy
University of Edinburgh
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