Amputation Surgery at Sea — 18th Century

Generated illustration. Not a historical photograph. An orlop cockpit. Not a portrait.

Overview

The operation is already on Nelson — Loss of Arm at Tenerife 1797. Eshelby Thomas — Surgeon HMS Theseus amputated Nelson Horatio — Biography Overview’s right arm above the elbow aboard HMS Theseus — Overview, about thirty minutes after Nelson returned from the night assault at Santa Cruz de Tenerife — Spanish Port.¹

The Surgical Log

This note covers that operation only. Instruments, mortality rates, and other operations stay on RESEARCH_QUEUE.

Eshelby’s surgical log records the operation at 11pm on 24 July 1797. Nelson was conscious throughout — chloroform would not be discovered for another fifty years. He was writing dispatches with his left hand within days. The 11pm figure is White p.112. Some accounts time the operation differently; that contest stays on the Tenerife note.²

Sources

• @white2005nelson — p.112
• Nelson — Loss of Arm at Tenerife 1797
• Eshelby Thomas — Surgeon HMS Theseus

Related

Navigation

• MOC_Culture_Society
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Same Subject

• Nelson — Loss of Arm at Tenerife 1797
• Eshelby Thomas — Surgeon HMS Theseus
• HMS Theseus — Overview
• Santa Cruz de Tenerife — Spanish Port
• Nelson Horatio — Biography Overview

Cross-Domain

• Age of Sail — Era Overview

Footnotes

1. Right arm amputated above the elbow aboard Theseus, about thirty minutes after return: Nelson — Loss of Arm at Tenerife 1797, citing White p.112. ↩

2. Surgical log 11pm, 24 July 1797; Nelson conscious; chloroform not discovered for another fifty years; writing left-handed within days: same note, White p.112. Do not use White p.119. Do not invent instruments, mortality rates, or other operations. ↩