A parallel profession Michael Grey, MBE

摘要

Why did so many ships officers of a certain generation end up marrying nurses? We might put it down to the compatibility of fellow shift-workers, people who were perfectly used to being up at all hours. It could be that ships' officers, who in my day were exclusively male, imagined life with a medically trained wife who would mop the troubled brow and utter comforting words when one is feeling off-colour. In fact they would realise, usually too late, that nurses tend to be brisk and efficient detectors of malingering, just like the mate, who with a few doses of the dreaded Black Draught, would ensure the sickest sailor would quickly return to work.