Battle of Trafalgar,Surgeons Diary.
Discussion
There was a program on channel 4 last night about a surgeons Memois(sp),who was the chief surgeon on HMS Victory,God the things they had to endure in those days ,like amputations had to be done within two and a half minutes to stop the patient from dying from shock,all this was done without anistheatic and those that held you down broke into a chorus of salty old sea songs. :(
timmy30 said:
all this was done without anistheatic
I thought they chucked a pint of rum down their throat first?
Thats what i thought,but according to the surgeon they didnt do it so you were aware and could give them a true reaction of what was going on
,interesting to know they threw all there dead and cut off limbs overboard except for Nelson he was preserved/pickled in a Vat of Brandy till they could make it back to Portsmouth.My old mum ( bless her ) works in a museum dedicated to nelson, I can still remember he telling me the story of the fastest recorded amputation conducted by a RN surgeon, it was something like 20 seconds, he not only took off the leg in question but also one of his own fingers and...one of the patients testicles 
...and you thought the NHS was bad!
...and you thought the NHS was bad!
ZR1cliff said:
interesting to know they threw all there dead and cut off limbs overboard except for Nelson he was preserved/pickled in a Vat of Brandy till they could make it back to Portsmouth.
They had to, can you imagine the stench from dozens, and sometimes hundreds of dead bodies and limbs in the enclosed spaces of the lower decks, it was quite a treck back to Gilbralter,and Blighty back then, with all the ships Jury rigged limping back home (or frigates towing them, as Victory was)
ZR1cliff said:
ZR1cliff said:
all this was done without anistheatic
I thought they chucked a pint of rum down their throat first?
Thats what i thought,but according to the surgeon they didnt do it so you were aware and could give them a true reaction of what was going on
and on the way back to Plymouth one of the filthy little beggers on board 'tapped' the barrel that he was in i.e kept having a sneaky tipple out of the barrel containing the pickled nelson. The result was that by the time they got back to Plym nelson had gone a bit smelly 
chris watton said:
Very horrific, oddly enough though, the men serving in the Navy at that time were much better cared for and fed better than their onshore peers!
Yes some of the top surgeons were aquisitioned by the Royal Navy,the RN also made sure all sailors were fed well for top fitness and pride themselves on firing there cannons every 2 minutes to the enemies 4 mins,Nelsons ploy was to get side by side with the foe and inflict deadly damage,the only problem was the french and the spanish had better snipers in the rigging.
timmy30 said:
Hence "tapping the Admiral"
popey said:
I thought they chucked a pint of rum down their throat first?
makes the blood a bit thinner and run faster so not a good idea if you're hacking part of the body off. Tends to make the floor a bit messier than if you're doing it on a sober chappie.
kelvin
Don't think it actually 'thins' the blood, does increase HR and act as a vasodilator though i.e. more pressure + bigger pipes = fking mess and more chance of death
I'd have thought it'd hurt that much you wouldn't last longer than 30s withough passing out??
I thought the guy getting de-limbed was slightly TOO gung-ho; singing along with the bad-toothed fella just as they were junior hack-sawing his leg off!!
Good program though.
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