The Adventures of Roderick Random

The Inhumane Muster of the Sick

Oakum orders all sick men brought to the quarter-deck for examination, an inhuman decree that shocks the medical staff who know certain patients cannot survive such movement. At the review, the captain derides the patients as worthless idlers eating the king’s provisions. Mackshane callously examines each case. A man just recovered from fever is pronounced healthy despite his weakness, then beaten at the gangway for allegedly feigning illness before collapsing. A quartan ague patient in his interval of health is declared fit for duty but dies the following day. Another with pleuritic symptoms and blood-spitting is ordered to exercise at the pump and suffocates from a lung hemorrhage. A fourth with severe dropsy is sent aloft and nearly drowns when he falls from the shrouds. Many feverish patients arrive delirious from the ordeal, some expire on deck, and others assigned to duty soon expire among their shipmates. The sick count drops below a dozen as the captain and surgeon congratulate themselves.

The Madman Attacks the Captain

A bound madman sends word begging for release, claiming Morgan’s personal grudge motivates his confinement. Morgan urgently warns the captain the man is dangerously insane and should remain restrained, yet Oakum orders him unbound despite warnings of consequences. The madman calmly argues for his sanity so persuasively that witnesses lean toward believing him. Morgan counters with evidence of the man’s violent behavior two days prior, corroborated by a waiter who rescued Morgan from the patient’s strangling attempt. The man responds by accusing the waiter of being Morgan’s creature, revealing Morgan’s wife keeps a gin-shop in Ragfair—an anecdote that produces laughter at the Welshman’s expense. Oakum orders the man unfettered, threatening to exchange Morgan’s position with his. The instant the restraints are removed, the madman attacks both captain and surgeon with fury, declaring himself commander of the vessel. He pummels them mercilessly and wounds numerous sailors who attempt restraint before finally being mastered.