Up from the Sea

The merchant seaman is doing a huge job in the war. Last week a conference of Government medical officials and top-rank psychiatrists at the New York Academy of Medicine considered what a grueling job it is also. Cases were presented from the War Shipping Administration's five rest homes for seamen (in Long Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Louisiana, California). Samples:

> One man, picked up from a life raft, had several shrapnel wounds. When the hospital discharged him he "just wanted to get away from everything." But after a month, during which he was scared stiff whenever he rode on a public conveyance, he shipped on a 29-day coastwise trip. One night "I was in bed and it was the first [alarm] I heard since I was torpedoed, and I practically froze in my bed. I didn't want to get out. I was musclebound, you might say, for several seconds." After that trip, he was sent to the Long Island rest home. After two weeks he was still afraid of crowds, and a short jaunt by train and ferry almost unnerved him. But after a good sleep, without nightmares--"I feel very good," he said. Soon he would be back at sea.

> A middle-aged Negro chief cook, on a ship torpedoed at night, was apparently knocked out by the explosion, finally struggled into his life belt in the dark, found his way to the deck, got into a lifeboat. Said he: "My head began to grow very, very large and I couldn't sit up and I commenced to throw up in the boat." His head felt "as large as a chair." Later he had hand tremors, a "pendulum pain" in the left side of his head, wrist weakness, stiff hands with palms that felt very thick. After treatment on Long Island he felt better, did not have his headaches so regularly. Said he: "As soon as I am healed, I propose to go back to sea."

About 75% of torpedoed seamen have the jitters for a while. Most cure themselves, but many need treatment. Until last autumn, when the War Shipping Administration, aided by the United Seamen's Service, established its homes, many a man sailed again into dangerous waters still suffering from tremor, double vision or sleeplessness. Chronic alcoholics, chronic psychoneurotics are not admitted to the homes. Any other bona fide seaman needing treatment can get in.

Psychiatrist Daniel Blain, 44, is in charge of the homes, mapped out the treatment. Average stay is three weeks. Average population of a home is 35 to 50. At this rate the homes can rehabilitate 4,000 men a year. Treatment is of two kinds: 1) "supportive," i.e., food, rest, quiet, sedation, vitamins, personal attention, recreation, exercise, occupational therapy; 2) psychotherapy by personal interview and group talks, to help a man understand his condition and bring about his own cure.

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