Another such Master Mariner was my late uncle, Derrick de Neumann, who became Commodore of Strick's, and when they were taken over, Commodore of P&O. Passing through Aden, on the way home from Australia, he was asked to carry home the body of an army Major. Passaging the Suez Canal the smell became quite noticeable, so he had all the passengers taken off the ship for a trip ashore, whilst he and the crew emptied one of the freezer compartments of food, and then placed the corpse therein. In the North Atlantic on another trip, they stood-by and then rescued the crew of a deep-sea trawler as it sank. On yet another occasion when a crew member had his forehead gashed in an accident my uncle sewed up the wound, and was later complemented by a surgeon who saw it at a hospital on his skills at sewing! Once when they had a valuable stallion horse on board, they noticed that the horse seemed ill and that there had been no droppings for a few days, so my uncle decided to try to give it an enema. But he had to come up with a means to do it. He decided to try a stirrup pump, but it was not a success and the horse died. Bernard de Neumann -------Original Message------- From: Peter Monks Date: 08/12/11 12:30:06 To: Gordon Shank; MARINERS@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [MAR] Characteristics of a Master Mariner Greetings, Perhaps a glimpse of one gentleman might help? Robert Karl Miethe rounded Cape Horn forty-two times, and was alive at age of 97 in 1974. He suffered injury during a storm whilst a master. A broken collarbone, one kneecap dislocated, and was gashed severely on the head. He supervised the setting and strapping of his shoulder, ordered the mate to knock back the kneecap with a belaying pin, and sew up the scalp. "Pinch the sides together and sew like a sailmaker". Twenty-four stitches later he returned to the deck to take charge. Peter On 2011-08-11, at 2:03 PM, "Gordon Shank" <gdshank@comcast.net> wrote: > Appreciating the generalization of the question I nevertheless was > interested in anyone's perspective as to the capabilities of a Master > Mariner during the 19th century. > > > > As close as I can determine my gg grandfather was a Sea Captain/Master > Mariner for 50+ years from the 1830's through the 1880's. > > > > His cargo often consisted of coal, pig iron, timber, sugar or molasses. On > many voyages he transported immigrants from the UK to Australia, New > Zealand, Canada or the United States. A few of his other more frequent > destinations included India, the Philippines, Singapore, Malta, Antigua, > Trinidad, Barbados, Brazil and Cuba. > > > > Other than a good working knowledge of the sea and sailing ships I suspect > MM's needed to be excellent leaders of men and capable of managing the > commercial aspects of these voyages. > > > > I would love to hear others' opinions on the topic. > > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to MARINERS-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message