Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Glossary of nautical terms used
- Introduction
- 1 Health at sea before 1860
- 2 Unseaworthy seamen
- 3 The health of merchant seamen in the nineteenth century
- 4 Injury and disease at sea in the nineteenth century
- 5 The seaman ashore: victim, threat or patient?
- 6 Bad food and donkey's breakfasts
- 7 Fit for lookout duties
- 8 The long-term health of seamen
- 9 War, manpower and fitness for service
- 10 Seamen's health in the welfare state
- 11 Retrospect and prospect
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - The long-term health of seamen
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- List of Abbreviations
- Glossary of nautical terms used
- Introduction
- 1 Health at sea before 1860
- 2 Unseaworthy seamen
- 3 The health of merchant seamen in the nineteenth century
- 4 Injury and disease at sea in the nineteenth century
- 5 The seaman ashore: victim, threat or patient?
- 6 Bad food and donkey's breakfasts
- 7 Fit for lookout duties
- 8 The long-term health of seamen
- 9 War, manpower and fitness for service
- 10 Seamen's health in the welfare state
- 11 Retrospect and prospect
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Who is responsible for the health of seamen?
Prevention of illness and injury in seamen and the management of their illnesses and injuries had developed over the years such that in the early twentieth century it was the province of many different agencies, including several departments of government, individual shipowners, public health authorities and voluntary bodies. But by the 1920s there was an expectation of a co-ordinated and consistent approach and one apparently simple question had become dominant: who is responsible for the health of British seamen? It was a question that was in reality far from simple, and there were a lot of interest groups seeking to keep the issue unresolved or decently out of sight. One parliamentary exchange provides a contemporary insight:
On November 24th (1925) Mr B Smith asked the President of the Board of Trade whether he would arrange for an annual report to be issued regarding the health of merchant seamen, giving a scientific analysis of diseases in the statistics published in the return of shipping casualties to and deaths on vessels registered in the United Kingdom, giving information as to the total number of men serving amongst whom the deaths occurred; and in view of the apparent absence of medical advisers in the department, if he would consider whether the health of seamen was a responsibility which might with advantage be transferred to the Ministry of Health.[…]
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Merchant Seamen's Health, 1860–1960Medicine, Technology, Shipowners and the State in Britain, pp. 116 - 135Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2014