Doctor on the High Seas
Challenges facing a ship's surgeon on passenger liners crossing the oceans

Robert Whitelaw (1913-1999) served on H.M.S. Cygnet escorting convoys to Murmansk 1944-45. After the war, he trained and then worked as a specialist in obstetrics and gynaecology but retained his respect for seafarers and his love of ships. His career in the Merchant Navy started as ship´s surgeon on R.M.S. Carnarvon Castle taking passengers to South Africa. He subsequently voyaged to North and South America, the Caribbean, Australia and Japan. On such voyages, the ship could be several days from the nearest port and a doctor was essential for the care the passengers.  This book describes some of the fascinating challenges he tackled included psychiatric crises, broken limbs, life-threatening bleeding, skull fractures, pneumonia and heart attack. The cast of characters he met included the Tristan da Cunha islanders and an internationally famous singer. Before the arrival of jet airliners. elegant ocean liners were the main method by which passengers travelled between continents, a bygone era.