PLEA FOR HELP

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 833, 29 November 1929, Page 18

PLEA FOR HELP

DOCTOR SUMMONED FROM MID-OCEAN EPIC OF THE SEAS Three members of the crew suffering from a strange malady, which did not respond to treatment, and no doctor on board—such was the position on the cargo steamer Sithonia recently while : bound from Tampico to Brisbane, An account of the manner in which the position was met comes from the steamer Min, which arrived in port yesterday afternoon from New York. I JVARLY in the evening of November I ; 7 Mr. H. Roberts, the Min’s wire- j j less operator, heard the Sithonia call- ' ing. He got into touch with the ves- j sel, which made an earnest appeal • for medical advice, stating that three of the crew were violently ill with some strange complaint, and that all efforts to alleviate the disease had been of no avail. The Min does not carry a doctor, and so Mr. Roberts sent out a general ■ call, and managed to raise the Shaw, ; Savill, and Albion Company’s liner Tamaroa, which was en route from Wellington to London. Mr. Roberts relayed messages describing the symptoms of the afflicted men from the Sithonia to the Tamaroa, but so unusual were these symptoms that the Tamaroa’s doctor was unable to diagnose their complaint with accuracy. j BROUGHT TOGETHER As the malady was becoming threatening, it was arranged that the Sithoi uia and the Tamaroa, which were about 400 miles apart, should meet the following day at a definite position, and the Min, having made this arrangement possible, was unable to be of further assistance, and resumed her voyage to Auckland. According to subsequent wireless reports from the Tamaroa, the Sitboilia was met at eight o’clock next j morning, but unfortunately one of the j sufferers had died in the interim, i The Tamaroa’s doctor treated the other two, who were found to be suf- ! fering from a severe form of heat stroke, and after advice had been j given as to their future treatment; the two vessels parted.