GIRL AS SHIPS DOCTOR

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 1039, 1 August 1930, Page 14

GIRL AS SHIPS DOCTOR

MELBOURNE GRADUATE ON SWEDISH VESSEL SUCCESSFUL, BUT MODEST A slim, girlish figure stood on the deck of the Swedish motorship Mirrabooka this morning, watching a sunlit Auckland interestedly. There was an importance attached to her presence. Miss Aren Stephens is an Australian girl with ambition. During months of travel along the sea lanes of the world,— she has achieved success as ship’s doctor on the Mirrabooka.

That is her distinction. Not many women are prepared to undertake service as a ship's doctor. Dr. Stephens does not seem to regard her work as anything above the ordinary. She actually calls it a holiday.

Certainly she is the only woman ship’s doctor to have visited Auckland. There may be other women carrying out tL* duties or a ship’s doctor, but the officers of the Mirrabooka have not heard of them. Dr. Stephens was charmingly modest about her work on the vessel on its journeyings to the corners of the world.

A Sun representative discovered No. Dr. Stephens did not think her service unusual. . She was very young, of course. Fundamentally, it was perfectly futile to ask Dr. Stephens her age, but —well. her position was unique, and that provided justification for the question. At this stage the officers of the Mirrabooka crowded round enthusiastically, and their promptings compelled Dr. Stephens to tell something, only a brief something, of her experience and her intentions.

“I graduated at Melbourne University,” Dr. Stephens said, still reluctantly. “My degrees? Oh, only the ordinary degrees in medical practice. I began practising as a doctor in Melbourne, and then there came the opportunity for me to act as ship’s doctor on the Mirraboka. Ye-es, I suppose you would call it unusual. Anyhow, I joined the Mirrabooka at Melbourne.” “REALLY A HOLIDAY” “Did you undertake the service for experience?” Dr. Stephens was asked. Then came her surprising answer, for tho responsibilities of a ship’s doctor can be overwhelming. “No, not for experience,” she replied. “It was really to take a holiday, and there was the chance to travel. Of course, it has been wonderful experience.” And that is all Dr. Stephens would sav about her work on board, apart from tli© fact that the ship’s complement had been extraordinarily healthy. The Mirrabooka went from Melbourne to Europe and Dr. Stephens/ left tho vessel at London, visiting the important hospitals there and at Amsterdam and Paris before joining the vessel again in Sweden. Oslo, Stockholm and Gothenburg were among the interesting cities she saw. When tho Mirrabooka went to San Francisco and Los Angeles to load for New Zealand and Australia, Dr. Stephens began the last stage of a voyage which means that she will have completed the circuit of the world. She saw South Sea Island life when tho Mirrabooka stopped at Niue to load fruit. When tho vessel reaches Melbourne, Dr. Stephens will leave to resume her practice there. And that, the officers say. will not be a good happening for the Mirrabooka, which will lose a conscientious ship’s doctor. In Auckland, too. Dr. Stephens is showing her keenness to study as many overseas hospitals as possible. She went to the Auckland Hospital this morning and later to the War Memorial Museum.