The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-11-11
A SEA-GOING HOSPITAL FOR DEEP
 SEA FISHERMEN
One Way to Reduce Life Costs of a Peaceful Industry-American Sail-
 ors Dependent on French Charity Will Congress Rescue the Fish, ermen. k

(Thomas w. Salmon, MD., United States Marine Hospital Service.) Exclusive Service The Survey Press Bureau.)
 Every August @ company of sad. faced men and women and curious summer boarders, gather, in Glou- cester to take part in 8 ceremony such as can be witnessed no where else in the United States. It is the
 annual memorial service for the ed at sea. Not more than 5000 men go tout from Gloucester" to the deep sea fisheries, yet during the last ten years the names of more than COG Gloucester fishermen have been read at these services, In time of war mourning; but in Gloucester it is simply cbunted as the cost of a peace full industry.
 This toll of the sea from those who gather her harvest is not all for oth- CT brave men were lost whose names were not read at the services and for whom no flowers were strewn by chil- dren upon the receding tide. These fishermen died in bed in marine hos pitals attended by nurses and provfd- ed with many comforts. Yet they lost their lives through the danger certainly as their comrades in the dories that went astray or in the schooners which foundered on the banks. Many of them died from ill., ness which the resources of modern medicine. if they can be applied in sides those who die, many fishermen are badly maimed through infected wounds which could be treated So successfully, were they received ashore, that only the slightest per manent effects would follow them. <1ia nj r6e little schooner, a broken bone or two is very likely to be included in the wreckage. Fractures which have to be neglected for days and even weeks until port is reached have very diff ferent outlook from those which are promptly cared for.
 The lists which are read at Glou- cester tell of a loss of life which is inevitable. But it is the belief of those who have the welfare of the fishermen at heart, that the list of deaths and the much longer one of men disabled, which are never read at memorial services, are longer than they need be- Although the deep-sea fisherman cannot come to the hos pital in time for more than a small part of the relief the hospital can afford him, there is way of sending the hospital to him.
 In other countries where deep-sea fishing is an important industry, the need for providing medical and sur gical aid at sea has been recognized so long that the agencies for relief are we'll established institutions. It is a rather surprising fact that no steps have yet been taken to do for the American fisherman what is done in. England by the Royal National Mission for the DeepSea Fishermen, in French possession by the Societe des Oeuvres de Mer, and in New and Labrador by pr. Gren- fell.
 In the North Sea the Royal Ma tional Mission maintains three hos pital and four dispensary ships which gave medical relief last year to more than 12,000 men. Many of those who were dangerously ill were carried to hospitals ashore in comfort and safe ty. Instead of a, two hundred mile journey, every mile bringing new tor lures for badly injured men, treat ment is commenced at once and fish, ermen who in the old days would have been reduced to the work house, live to walk the deck again.
 Since 1892 Dr. Grenfell has per formed a similar service for the fish, ermen of Newfoundland and Labra- dor Within the last few weeks a fine new auxiliary schooner has been