Surgeon George Hamilton
George Hamilton had been a naval surgeon for more than 12 years when he embarked in the Pandora in 1790. He had served during the American War of Independence and had been on the half-pay list for nearly four years before he was appointed to the Pandora. His account of the Pandora's voyage was published in Berwick on Tweed in 1793.*
His narrative suggests he was a capable surgeon, aware of the latest methods to maintain a healthy crew. In a time when death at sea from disease and poor health was still very frequent, only two men under Hamilton's care died of illness during the 10-month voyage.
Hamilton appears to have been a man of the world who had had the advantage of a formal education. He may have started his medical career at Edinburgh University; if so, it appears he did not graduate with a medical degree, preferring perhaps to follow a more "hands-on" route to medical practice. The first naval record of him is that he was rated by the Company of Surgeons as a first surgeon's mate for a first rate ship; and on 30 June 1777 he was assigned as the surgeon's mate to HMS Tortoise, a store ship (26 guns).
In July 1778 he was appointed surgeon's mate on HM Cutter Ferret (six guns) which was operating in North American waters. He ended his war service as a surgeon assigned to the 64 gun HMS Agamemnon. He was paid off in June 1783 but possibly at the captain's request he rejoined Agamemnon as a surgeon. Before being placed on the half-pay list in 1786, however, he was assigned to HMS Brazen, a 14 gun cutter. After four years on half-pay, he was appointed to the Pandora in August 1790.
After the Pandora's voyage, he was assigned to HMS Lowestoft in December 1792. But he was soon to be "invalided out" of the navy shortly after losing an arm-probably during a naval bombardment of a fortified tower on Cape Mortella in Corsica in February or March 1794. His name appears in naval superannuation records until December 1796 only; it is therefore reasonable to assume that he died in 1797.
* A facsimile edition of Hamilton's narrative can be ordered through the MTQ Shop.
Inside the Surgeon's cabin
Living areas in the Pandora were generally cramped, dark and airless. The officers' cabins on the lower deck, however, were at least a little more spacious, and provided the occupants with some privacy.
Three walls of Surgeon Hamilton's cabin were made of light wooden panels, one of which had a door with some glass panes. The fourth was the side of the ship. Very little natural light filtered down from the upper deck. Hamilton had to work by lantern or candlelight to prepare his medicines or write in his journal.