New-York tribune., 1903-02-26
ONE BUSY WOM4N.
Nurse CazCardine and Her Work
on the LabrGdOr Coast

Far up on the Labrador coast lives Nurse Ca
wardine. who for eight long winters-long in a very
LITERAL sense-has had sole charge of the only
winter hospital on thousand mile coastline IHe
hospital is an outcome of the Royal Naton-l
Mission to the Deep Sea Fishermen of England
a medical mission founded back in the SOS, and
much favored by Queen Victoria. who always had
spot in her heart for the soldier and sailor
lads of England.
The hospital ships OF the mission piled for some
years only among the British fishing boats Of the
German Ocean, but in 1892 increased support en-
abled the mission to send hospital boat to the
fishing banks of Labrador
There, each summer. motley fleet Of fish
ing craft. Most of the fishermen Newfound-
landers. who bring with them their wives, chill
dren, dogs. goats and fowls. These are packed in
cabin and hold in friendly promiscuity with nets.
boats. salt and barrels of beef pork, flour and
smulasses. A few Nova Scotian craft are mingled
with the rest. ard occasionally Gloucester boat
working the great halibut banks. Altogether, there
is influx of so 900 fisher folk each spring, who
along with the 1000 whites and the i5OO Esquimaus
who live there permanently devote their entire time
TO the fishing banks.
The banks stretch along a thousand miles or
coast and this great fleet. scattered this vast
distance. is entirely without medical assistance
except that furnished by the mission. The hos
pital ship piled to and fro along the banks. but
early in the first season it perceived that shore
hospitals were needed to relieve it's crowded wards
Two speedily established. for the summer
only but when the days began to shorten and
the boats sailed away southwark it seemed i'm
possible to the 5000 people upon that dreary
coast without nurse or doctor through the long
winter
So one doctor stayed patrol the coast, going
up and down the hospital ship had fol-
lowed it's beat the waters, while in the log
hospital on Caribou Island Nurse Ada Cawardine
a graduate of a London training school. remained
to hold the fort alone
Miss Cawardine goes shopping once a year. and
then it is at her desk with pen and paper and
corrugated line of thought dividing her brow she
is Obliged to order all supplies the hospital a
year in advance; and the housewife who thinks
this easy do is invited to try it just once Ii
anything gives out meantime sne Just goes WIFI
out
the ingenuity of the nurse For instance, the nos
pital range went strike year, and for three
months thereafter she cooked at an open hre among
the rocks outside. and she kept one patient IN
too too how to make the most of restricted dietary
and to adapt strictly scienthc loeas as 70 'r ne
pateBts ThSs s Contingent Of sqniau patients
was successtuliy dietea S bav got along very
All the work is not in the hospital. by any means
for she sent for post haste to attend tn0se
lying i'll in native huts T6en Tos sae aes over forty
foot drifts or II the distance is too great Tor walk
n she bs hi sn or 3zen arms Of the
Sometimes she Journeys two hundred miles on sucn
living room full of noisy children, insupportably
hot and unventilated. with filthy bedding. @ and one one
cracked basin ard ragged towel for both ner 9"1
and the patients ablutions often she IS Gaileo
upon perform all the functions or the pnySSS3 SySos
came from nursing or medical SCI school Sne das
odd times in winter she fills in with classes IN IN
ali kinds of things. from the alphabet to domesGc
science with Sunday school on Sunday, ana n1otn-
eTs' meetings at odd times KIND friends In Eng IL
land Canada and the United States occaslonalIy
send barrels Of clothing. books and toys, all OF
which are distributed by the nurse with caretu .t
Cheer-
resident nurse of the Labrador medical mission Is
fairly busy woman