In this engaging tale of movement from one hemisphere to another, we see doctors at work attending to their often odious and demanding duties at sea, in quarantine, and after arrival. The book shows, in graphic detail, just why a few notorious voyages suffered tragic loss of life in the absence of competent supervision. Its emphasis, however, is on demonstrating the extent to which the professionalism of the majority of surgeon superintendents, even on ships where childhood epidemics raged, led to the extraordinary saving of life on the Australian route in the Victorian era.

'Though the focus might seem narrow, this is an illuminating work of history. It contains within it glimpses and echoes of lives long-forgotten that speak across time with great power.' - Sydney Morning Herald

'Robin Haines' story is a microcosm of Victorian hierarchy: class, racial and sectarian feeling on the one hand, and on the other the integrity and generosity displayed by paternalism at its most high-minded.' - The Melbourne Age

'Robin Haines's excellent little study of nineteenth-century emigrant voyages to Australia from Britain cogently captures the perils of such expeditions...the book is rich in revealing anecdotes.' - Christopher Lawrence, Times Literary Supplement

'...I have realized, through reading Robin Haines's excellent study of oceanic voyages, how little I actually know about what happens in that long interval between ports...This is a slim, beautifully-written volume. One hopes that there is yet more to be gained from such carefully detailed studies.' - Maureen Lux, Medical History

Autorentext

ROBIN HAINES is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Faculty of Social Science, Flinders University, Australia.

Inhalt
Acknowledgments List of Tables 'Some Respectable Body of Men': An Introduction 'May it be the Last of our Sorrows': Disease and Death at Sea 'The Obstinately Dirty Character of the People': Origins, Children, and Epidemics at Sea 'A Most Efficient Body of Officers': Surgeon Superintendents and their Responsibilities 'His Many Duties and Anxieties': Supervision and Discipline at Sea 'The Mother's Milk Generally Fails Them in about Six Weeks': Infant and Child Health 'The People Suffered Greatly in Consequence': Disease, Weather, and Great Circle Sailing 'The Dr is Supreame Over All on Board Bar the Capton and Officers': Matrons, Constables, and Emigrants 'Firmness and Indulgence, Consideration and Strictness': One Surgeon's Management of Families and Irish Girls 'I Held a Court in the Ward': Medicine and Democracy at Sea 'Set Sail with Fowl Wind and Head Sea': Storms, Routines, and Seasickness 'We have Lost Several Children but this was Quite Expected': Epidemics and Quarantine Appendix 1: Individual Causes of Death Reported by Surgeons on Voyages to South Australia 1848-1885 Bibliography