On the Hospital Ship.

Manawatu Herald, 16 December 1899, Page 2

On the Hospital Ship.

The following sketch of the preparations made for the reception of the. wounded soldiers in the hospital ship Spartan, of the Cape Union line, is of interest :— The three saloons have been converted into hospital wards»^£ aad there is a fourth ward. No z^

specially devoted to officers. Beds have thus been provided for sixty bad bed-ridden cases; but the cabins have been equipped to accommodate nearly a hundred convalescent cases. There is, too, an operating theatre, and a ward for fracture cases, while the most complete arrangements have been made for commissariate and sanitary purposes. The electric light is fitted throughout the ship, and is utilised in many special ways for surgical purposes. In order further to illustrate the perfection of the hospital arrangements it may be stated that the cots for the wounded are hung on hooks so as to swing with the ship. The method of receiving the patient is as follows : The cot in which he is to lie is taken off the hooks and placed upon a lift,' which is hoisted on the deck by means of a derrick. The patient is then taken off his stretcher and placed in the cot, which is lowered and returned to its place with scarcely a shake to the sick man. So rapid, too, is the process, that as Dr Brodie, a member of the civil medical staff, said, it was possible to fill a ward of 26 beds in 20 minutes.

The staff is as complete as the equipment. In addition to Major Woodhonse and Dr Brodie — a Johannesburg refugee by the way— Dr Denver is on >oard ; and there are in addition six non-commissioned officers and fifteen men of the Army Hospital Corps and three female nurses, of the Royal Nursing Association. The Spartan, ships at Durban such wounded as are ready to be removed and brings them to Capetown.