Page 35 - Il Mediterraneo quale elemento del Potere Marittimo - Atti 16-18 settembre 1996

U.S. NAVY HOSPITALS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN
1804-1870

HAROLD LANGLEY

The construction of the first ships of the U.S. Navy began as a result of an
act of Congress in 1794 to protect American merchant shipping in the Mediterra-
nean from attacks by Algerian coarsairs. Before the ships were completed, the pro-
blems with Algiers were settled by diplomacy. A few years later the United States
Navy was formally established in the midst of an undeclared naval war with Fran-
ce, 1798-1801. Immediately after that conflict, new problems arose in the ~editer­
ranean, this time with the Barbary states in North Africa. Naval operations were
carried on against Tripoli from 1801 to 1805. It was during these operations that
the Navy felt the need to establish a hospital in the Mediterranean. Preparations
were made to ship medicines and instruments for the care of 1,000 men for a year.
Various sites were explored before it was decided to rent a building in Syracuse
on the island of Sicily that could accomodate 75 men. Surgeon Edward Cutbush,
who was a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and who had served in the
war against France, was place in charge of it in November 1804. The sicks of the
Mediterranean Squadron were tranferred to this faciliryO>,
The period of greatest activity at the hospital came as the result of a land at-
tack on the city of Derile, in present day Libya, by an international army that had
been recruited in Egypt and was led by the American, General William Eaton. The
casualties from the battle for Derne were brought to the brig USS Argus and tran-
sported to Syracuse. There seems to have been one ·death at the hospital, but it
was apparently one of the Arabs in Eaton's force. The loss ofDerne convinced the
pasha of Tripoli to sign preliminary articles of peace in June 1805. The end of
the war meant that there would be no further use for the hospital, so in April1806
Commodore John Rodgers, the commander of the Mediterranean Squadron, orde-
red Surgeon Cutbush to close the installation. The remaining patients were sent
2
back to the United States < >.
The Barbary War convinced the United States government that it needed to
maintain a continuous naval presence in the Mediterranean to prevent further at-
tacks on its maritime commerce. Small squadrons performed this duty, and in so
doing they faced periodic health problems. At one point the frigate Constitution had
no medical officer available, and it necessary to hire a physicial from Malta or Gi-
braltar. It is believed that these were British physicians <3>.