Notes on the dispatch of troops by sea / by Charles J. Kirwan.

  • Kirwan, Charles J.
Date:
1859
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Notes on the dispatch of troops by sea / by Charles J. Kirwan. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    5/88
    INTRODUCTION. These notes which form some portion of the results of journals carefully kept during nine voyages with troops are submitted with the anxious wish that attention may be drawn towards the manner in which our troops are sent to sea. Nothing but the conviction that an immense amount of destruction of the property of the soldier, and permanent loss of health (not to speak of the temporary dis- comfort) result from the imperfect fittings of the ships employed, and the defective arrangements made for the government and discipline of the men when on board, would have induced the writer to introduce a production which he is painfully conscious is full of imperfections. But voyage after voyage and year after year the same subjects for regret have forced themselves on his notice—no en- deavour to improve the state of matters has become apparent to him—and no one has taken up the pen either to point out existing defects, or to suggest remedies for them. The soldier proceeding to India is profusely fed, but in some instances he is ill lodged in a leaky ship, where his clothing is injured and his bedding frequently wet, and he is harassed by night watches injurious to his health, and that too- in a