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Free "Ship Captain's Medical Guide" Download

Christian Williams

E381 - Los Angeles
Senior Moderator
Blogs Author
Broken leg? Respiratory failure? Cargo boom operator dropped a tractor on the deck crew again?

The "Ship Captain's Medical Guide" was first put together by the Port of London more than 100 years ago to afford deck officers something to do before a real doctor arrived. It is very useful to have on board, even for the likes of us. I feel particularly comforted by the chapters about venereal disease, crush injuries, and how to ascertain whether someone is actually dead, and then, conveniently, the rules for burial at sea, proper shroud construction and weighting, and of course, make sure the ceremony is carried out in water deep enough that the deceased doesn't wash ashore in front of some beachside restaurant.

The physical book is available for $40 or so, but unless burns from superheated steam are common on your yacht, the download would probably suffice. It hazards little to put it on the seagoing laptop for such time as you encounter the extremely unexpected, for example, your kid's girlfriend giving birth just the other side of the breakwater. {"I didn't even know you two were going steady!")

The download is a bit of a puzzle, in the true English style of modernity and Brexitness and we do it our way, don't you know.

Here it is

[But don't do that. Sati provides a PDF in message #4 below]

https://www.witherbyseamanship.com/ship-captains-medical-guide-downloadable-product.html

Good luck.
 
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Tin Kicker

Sustaining Member
Moderator
Good thing to have and not a joke when operating on boats and in other countries. Thanks Christian. Over my career, I've led small groups that have had others with me:

Go into heart arrythmia in Thai heat.

Have heat stroke in a swamp in Cameroon, North Africa. I think we had one in the Everglades too.

A crane foreman was standing next to me when wind caught the load and he had several finger tips cut off. This was on land on the coast of southern Ireland and the guy basically said "oh sh1t" in the local brogue like he'd splashed water on his clothes, picked the finger tips up, and we put him in a car to be taken to the hospital.

Experience a severe gout attack offshore in Dalian, China. The on-shore hospital was first rate!

Undergo kidney stones and drop to the deck in tears. (I also had those once after and can relate to the pain!)

Take an extra malaria pill in India when the guy forgot if he took the first pill, probably due to heat. While not a normal reaction, to him it was the equivalent of a bad LSD trip and we had to restrain him.

And the usual assortment of sprains, broken fingers and toes, herniated discs and twisted backs, scrapes, and cuts needing stitches. These are unfortunately pretty common when working on boats.

I'm relating these not to show off (or relate what bad luck it is to have me around) but to point out that when people are out and active, life happens. I hope that people think about what they'd do for each of the above in real time or if alone because a hospital may not be within an hour's reach when on a boat. Your download is a resource could be a life saver, beyond the immediately available print set of instructions every boat should have for the usual injuries. And the need to occasionally take a refresher course.


btw and fwiw - My son and I were next to a guy who had a massive heart attack in a Washington DC post office close to my office. Even worse, I'd seen him from time to time so he wasn't a total stranger. The guy died on me even though I did everything you are supposed to (Boy Scout leader and work training) right up till the EMTs arrived. First aid courses always teach that if you do "this" the result will be "that" and I was not emotionally ready for him to die. Despite what the EMTs and my RN wife re-assured me with at the time, the reality took me very long time to come to internalize that I hadn't bungled things and killed the man.
 
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bgary

Advanced Beginner
Blogs Author
I wish there was a simple PDF download.

Being a bit of a software "insider", I get very nervous about "document download" sites that install software so that you can read their doc. Many of those download sites require registration, or infest your computer with other software. Neither of which is easy to un-do if you want to detach from them and just have the doc available on your computer.

Might not be true in this instance, but... worth being aware of.

Bruce
 

Geoff W.

Makes Up For It With Enthusiasm
Blogs Author
Proprietary software and arcane, overly-specific filetypes make me mad, as a child of the internet.

Here's a PDF for everybody, don't download their program. I'd upload it to the site, but the file uploader is telling me it's too big. I put it on my Google Drive instead.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16feANFu68rsb32YE__3ChG3d1nxMZzGL/view?usp=sharing

Now, where's the section on anesthetizing with hard alcohol for amputations while at sea?
 
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