Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenRivet
what about being on a long drumb beat patrol and one of the men comes down with appendicitis?
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Not exactly answering your question, but on Royal Navy boats this seems to have been a common complaint. Not actual appendicitis, but that many of the crew suspected they had appendicitis. They were given laxative pills and told to rest. Sorted out the problem almost all of the time.
In terms of doctors on merchant ships, it would depend on the size of the crew I would imagine. On many I would believe a "doctor" would be someone with rudimentary training, a stash of dressings and a smattering of medicines. And that would be a secondary role I would think. Speculation, but not entirely baseless.
Doctors in the sense of trained physicians are not likely to be scattered amongst ships liberally, they would be better placed in a port (for their own careers too...)