Page 37 - Il Mediterraneo quale elemento del Potere Marittimo - Atti 16-18 settembre 1996

p.s. NAVY HOSPITALS IN THE MEDITERRANEAN, 1804·1870 23

that the grand master was only slightly injured, and with gratitude for the surgeon's
prompt action, the emperor presented Dr. Salter with a purse filled with gold coins.
Salter declined the gift with great delicacy and propriety. A few days later the queen
of Naples visited the Prank/in and told Commodore Stewart that the emperor had
been highly gratified by his visit to the ship and that since that time little else had
been discussed at court. This situation may have been the explanation for the U.S.
6
Navy's next hospital arrangement < >. '
We know little about the circumstances, but shortly after this arrangements
were made to allow the navy to use a portion of a hospital in Pisa for its patients.
Surgeon Salter was placed in chard of the section and two surgeon's mates were
assigned to assist him. We do not know how many Americans were crated at this
hospital or when the first patients arrived. It seems that he arrangement did not
prove to be satisfactory. Tpis was due in part to the fact that quarantine laws at
Naples were very strict, and ships had to wait between 20 and 40 days before any
of the sick could be landed. Once on shore they faced many local restrictions. To
get to Pisa they had to travel up a canal for about 15 miles. Whether the accomo-
dations at the hospital in Pisa were satisfactory has not be ascertained, but for so-
me naval officers, Pisa was too far from the normal cruising areas of the squadron.
Whatever the details of the case were, late in 1821 CaptainJacob Jones, who had
a medical background, told the secretary of the navy that the hospital at Pisa was
unnecessary. The secretary ordered him to close it. While following these ordes,
)ones found that the Americans had ceased using the hospital at least a year
earlier <7>.
It seems that in August 18.20 the captain of the U.S. brig Spark had as~ed
the authorities at Port Mahon for permission to use the navy yard there in cases
of need. The authorities agreed. Later the Spanish government agreed to let the
Americans deposit their stores duty free at Port Mahon for a six month period.
This led the Americans to abandon the arrangements at Pisa. They anticipated being
able to negotate with Spain for a long term base rights. By 1821 American rela-
tions with Spain had improved as a result of the purchase of Florida and the nego-
tiation of new boundary arrangements. But in 1822 Spain refused to renew the
base rights agreement. Once again the Navy left Port Mahon. It was not until1825
that the American Minister to Spain was able to obtain the desired base rights.
Port Mahon thus became the first long-term overseas naval base in U.S. history,
8
and the arrangement lasted for twenty years <>.
At Port Mahon the Americans established a hospital .on a small island just
below the city of Mahon. The quarters for the sick were numerous, clean and well
aired. The hospital also had a well which supplied excellent water. Navy medical
officers were assigned to the hospital for duty from time to time, and a Spanish
surgeon and a chaplain were also in residence. Generally officers and men who
had illnesses that could not be adequately treated on shipboard were transferred
to the hospital ashore. Available evidence suggests that there were few deaths <9>.