Armstrong – Table of Contents

food stores as they came aboard to make sure they were fit for consumption. At sea, his
main medical function was to remove cinders from the eyes of the sailors who had been
on “watch” duty. The Seneca was a coal burning ship. The watch stations on board were
higher than the ship’s smokestack; smoke and hot cinders frequently filled the eyes of the
sailors who had “the watch”. Armstrong became quite expert at removing these cinders
while he and the sailor would be on a heaving deck in a rolling sea. The sailor would be
pinned against a stanchion, Armstrong propped against a wall, and they would both roll
with the movement of the ship. Sometimes the cinders would be hot when they landed in
the eye would burn in and then be difficult to dislodge.
On one return trip from Great Britain to Gibraltar in 1918, the Seneca was asked
to transport a prisoner from Plymouth, England. This prisoner, who was to be
incarcerated in Gibraltar, was not feeling well. The trip from Wales to Gibraltar by
“slow” convoy took 9-10 days. En route, two thirds of the Seneca’s crew became ill. The
infirmary could hold only two men; the remaining sick crewmen were strewn in the
gangways and on the decks. There were just enough well sailors to keep the engines hot
and the boilers going. To help out, Armstrong even volunteered to take a turn standing
watch, a task not in his normal duties. Arriving in Gibraltar, Armstrong hoisted the
yellow quarantine flag and wired ashore saying that there was an unknown illness on
board, most likely influenza. The reply from shore was, “Come on in, everybody has got
it here”. The shipboard epidemic on the Seneca caused major morbidity among the crew
but, fortunately, there were no fatalities; it was Armstrong’s only experience dealing with
major illnesses while he was on sea duty.