The Adventures of Roderick Random

Thompson’s Ship Tour and Rodrick’s Accommodations

After dinner, Thompson leads the narrator on a tour of the ship, showing different parts, describing their uses, and explaining the discipline and economy practiced aboard. Thompson requests a hammock from the boatswain, which is neatly slung by his friend Jack Rattlin. Since the narrator has no bedding, Thompson obtains credit with the purser for a mattress and two blankets. At seven in the evening, Morgan visits the sick and orders appropriate treatment, while the narrator assists Thompson in preparing prescriptions.

Horrific Conditions of the Ship’s Sick Berth

When the narrator follows Thompson with medicines into the sick berth, or hospital, he observes conditions that make recovery seem miraculous rather than death. About fifty miserable, distempered wretches hang in rows, huddled so closely that no more than fourteen inches of space is allowed for each person with bed and bedding. They are deprived of daylight and fresh air, breathing only a noisome atmosphere of morbid steams from their own excrements and diseased bodies. They are devoured by vermin hatched in the surrounding filth and lack every convenience necessary for people in such helpless conditions.

第二十六章

During his first attempt to assist Thompson with administering clysters to the sick, the narrator accidentally knocked over a box of perfume while the ship rolled, creating a stench that offended everyone aboard, and became wedged between hammocks until a sick patient seized him by the nose in retaliation for the disturbance. After descending to the cockpit, Morgan confronted the steward about noxious smells, blaming him for serving damaged provisions and spoiled cheese, while launching into an elaborate discourse on the merits of good cheese from Glamorgan versus Cheshire, and then prepared a fiery salmagundy for supper that burned the narrator’s entrails. The narrator subsequently discovered unwelcome passengers in his hair—likely lice—and had it shorn, replacing it with a borrowed wig, before struggling to master the unfamiliar art of climbing into a hammock, which he eventually accomplished only after much trepidation. During his fitful night’s sleep, he was jolted awake by the deafening noise of the boatswain’s mates calling the larboard watch, and the following morning, after breakfasting on biscuit and brandy, he resumed his duties attending the sick, while the mess boy rang a bell summoning those with sores to receive treatment before the mast.