It is remarkable that the blockade runners seldom included in their
complement of officers and crew a professional doctor or surgeon,
although there were occasions when they were greatly needed. Few of our
men were wounded, although the bombshells burst all round us again and
again and finally sunk the _Lilian_ to a level with the deck.
The runs from Wilmington to Nassau were made in forty-eight to
fifty-two hours, and to Bermuda in seventy-two to eighty hours, and
the sick or wounded received scant attention until they reached port.
It therefore devolved upon the purser or the chief officer to attend
such cases, and my very limited knowledge of medicine restricted
the treatment of our alleged sick men to compound cathartic pills
and quinine. A majority of the cases of "pains all over them" were
malingerers, some of whom dodged their duty during the entire voyage.
Captain Hobart, of the _Don_, told us of such a case on his ship
interviewed by his chief officer, C----, as follows: