] There was not room enough on board these ships for
all the sick, and a part of the upper deck of the Jersey was therefore
prepared for their accommodation. These were on the after part of the
upper deck, on the larboard side, where those who felt the symptoms of
approaching sickness could lie down, in order to be found by the
nurses as soon as possible.
Few ever returned from the hospital ships to the Jersey. Dring knew
but three such instances during his imprisonment. He says that "the
outward appearance of these hospitals was disgusting in the highest
degree. The sight of them was terrible to us. Their appearance was
even more shocking than that of our own miserable hulk.
"On board the Jersey among the prisoners were about half a dozen men
known by the appellation of nurses. I never learned by whom they were
appointed, or whether they had any regular appointment at all. But
one fact I knew well; they were all thieves. They were, however,
sometimes useful in assisting the sick to ascend from below to the
gangway on the upper deck, to be examined by the visiting Surgeon who
attended from the Hunter every day, when the weather was good. If a
sick man was pronounced by the Surgeon to be a proper subject for one
of the hospital ships, he was put into the boat waiting alongside; but
not without the loss or detention of his effects, if he had any, as
these were at once taken by the nurses, as their own property.
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