The Opelousas courier., 1900-03-10
BRITISH HOSPITAL SHIP,
HOW THE SPARTAN Is EQUIPPED FOR
SOUTH AFRICAN SERVICE.

tive Durham and Cape Town.
The two hospital ships intended for
use in South African waters in con-
n~ection with the British operations in
the Iransvaal were the Spartan and
the Tro.an, belonging to the Union
Steamship company. These have been
converted from Atlantic liners to hos
pitfalls, perfectly equipped for the sue
cor of the sick and wounded. Per-
haps it is not too much to say that
when the Spartan left southampton
dock she was the finest vessel in point
OF equipment that had ever sailed
from England with the Geneva cross
painted in red on her bows. The
very latest surgical appliances and
methods will be found in use In her
wards and operating chamber, and the
hoentgen ray apparatus, which
proved SO valuable an aid to medical
work in the field during the last Sou
dan campaign, will now for the first
time be ready to hand in a hospital
ship. The Malacca, which took part
in the British Benin expedition, was
a splendidly equipped hospital ship,
but the arrangements for medical and
surgical relief then made, good as they
were, are eclipseds by those on the
Spartan, although in a great many
points OF detail they are precisely
similar in both cases.
Nothing conld be more cheerful
than the appearance of the wards for
the wounded, which occupy the whole
width of the ship on the main deck of
the Spartan. Everything which fore
thought and experience can suggest
has been provided. The walls are
painted pale green, the floors var
nished, electric light is the Q Of
illumination, the cabins will be pro-
vided with fresh air by electric fans,
which will have the additional advan.
tage of being moved to any part OF
the ward and the cots are of the latest
pattern. They are, of course, swing
ing ones, but when the ship is at
anchor oil in perfectly smooth water
each bed al be made rigid. Above
the cots hang ropes and handles, by
which the patients can raise them
| selves and at the head of the bed is q
| shelf.
One of the most useful additions,
and o novelty, as far as q hospital
ship is concerned, is the elevator,
which will convey the wounded from
the upper deck to the wards. There
are three mems wards, and one for
the officers, but as the apartments are
adjoining the provision of two such
lifts may be considered ample. These
lifts, which are so built as to be able
to take q litter, communicate with
No. 3 ward, the after ward, and with
No. 2. No. /. the forward ward, has
a new hatch ladder, built SO as to be
more easily negotiated" than those
ordinarily in use. In each of the
wards are dressers and cupboards,
where plates and dishes in the one
case and requisites for the nursing
staffin the other can be kept.
Each ward is adjoined by bath
rooms and lavatories, which have bee +,
specially constructed by the company's
workmen. The three mems wards
give accommodation for go patients,
and there are five cots in the officers
ward, q coy room formed by running
a partition fore and aft through the
frst-class saloon, part of which will
still be devoted to the uses Of a dining
room. But, should occasion arise,
there is considerable space further.
forward, where patients suffering only
slight hurts could be accommodated,
and where the hospital orderlies, who
who act under orders from the nurses,
will also find quarters. In this part
of the ship, the fore main deck, there
lis a padded cabin on the port side and
on the starboard side a cabin for the
attendant, who would be in charge
of it.
Some of the frst-class cabins, in
close proximity to the wards, have
been fitted up for about a dozen
nurses, and on the after part of the
upper deck is the commanding nedi-
cal officers cabin, formed by parti-
tioning off part of the music room,
which, however, will NOT be altogether
divorced from its original use, and
the piano has been retained. On the
fore part of the upper deck 10 the
operating room-not q large room, as
may be imagined-but one admirably
adapted to the important work to be
carried ont within its walls. It has
one operating table and is fitted ON
the latest and best principles. It is
in the middle of the deck and separ-
ated from it by o narrow gangway is
O cabin on the Fort side containing o
couple of beds for the pse OF patients
Immediately after operation. The
operating room is in close proximity
TO one of the lifts, so that with the
least possible trouble access can be
had TO the wards.
On the port side Of the room is the
~dispensary. fitted in exactly the same
way as that ON the Coromandel, the
hospital ship which did duty during
the last Ashantee war, and the Victor
Emmanuel, which was used by the
army medical department during the
former campaign, that of 1874-75.
Not only is the d~ispsnsary arranged
on identical lines, but it may be i'm
teresting to mention, the same em-
ploye who fitted mp q like chamber on
the vessels named has been engaged
in the work on the Spartan. Another
feature on the upper deck forward is
the laundry and drying room, which
has been built for the occasion and
fitted with steam boiler appliances.
On the bridge deck are the sanitary