Rough Medicine: Surgeons at Sea in the Age of Sail

By use of detective work and meticulous research, Joan Druett has reconstructed an exciting account of a way of life that has long since vanished. Using diaries, journals, and correspondences, Druett recounts the daily grind surgeons on nineteenth-century whaling ships faced: the rudimentary tools they used, the treatments they had at their disposal, the sorts of people they encountered in their travels, and the dangers they faced under the harsh conditions of life at sea. Rough Medicineis much more than the lively stories of doctors at sea. It is a rich chronicle of both the early history of global trade and the evolution of modern medicine. Beautifully written and masterfully researched, there is no other book quite like this.

Joan Druett is the author of She Captains: Heroines and Hellions of the Sea (2000) and Hen Frigates: Wives of Merchant Captains Under Sail (1998)