{{Short description|Assistant to the person responsible for the health of a ship's passengers and crew}} {{About|former rank in the Royal Navy|a novel by Patrick O'Brian|The Surgeon's Mate}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} A '''surgeon's mate''' was a rank in the Royal Navy for a medically trained assistant to the ship's surgeon. The rank was renamed '''assistant surgeon''' in 1805, and was considered equivalent to the rank of master's mate/mate.<ref name="MedicalBranch">{{cite web|url=http://www.pdavis.nl/Ranks.htm#COM|title=The organization of the Medical Department of the Royal Navy|access-date=2009-05-21}}</ref> In 1807, first-rate would have three, a third-rate two, and frigates and sloops one.<ref name="lavery328">{{Harvnb|Lavery|1989|p=328}}</ref>
A surgeon's mate was responsible for visiting patients in the sick bay and attending to their needs. Along with the surgeon, he would examine patients during morning sick call. He would make daily rounds of men already in the sick bay, while the loblolly boy would feed, wash and shave bedridden patients. The mate would prepare and administer medicines in the sick-bay, dress wounds and skin ulcers, and bleeding men who needed it. He was responsible for maintaining the ship's surgical instruments, for keeping accurate records of medicines and expenditures, for inspecting the cook's pots and pans, and for supervising the loblolly boy.<ref name="King3637">{{Harvnb|King|2001|pp=36,37}}</ref>
Surgeon mates had a similar shipboard status to midshipmen and master's mates, and were berthed with them in the gunroom.<ref name="Lewis268">{{Harvnb|Lewis|1960|p=268}}</ref> However, they were comparatively very well paid, earning £9 2s per month in 1815, equivalent to a lieutenant on a flagship and three times as much as a master's mate.<ref name="Lewis304">{{Harvnb|Lewis|1960|p=304}}</ref>
A navy's surgeon's mate or early navy assistant surgeon has not to be confused with a modern assistant surgeon in the Medical Staff Corps (see Royal Army Medical Corps) or a passed assistant surgeon in the United States Army Medical Corps. An assistant surgeon (MSC) or passed assistant surgeon (USAMC) possessed a full medical license (and ranked as commissioned officer), a surgeon's mate did not.
==References== {{reflist|2}}
;Bibliography *{{cite book | first=Dean|last= King | title=A Sea of Words: Lexicon and Companion for Patrick O'Brian's Seafaring Tales | publisher=Henry Holt | year=2001 | isbn=0-8050-6615-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JKY8yZFChX4C&q=A+Sea+of+Words|access-date=2009-05-19}} *{{cite book|last=Lavery|first=Brian|title=Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men and Organization|year=1989|location=Annapolis, Md|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=0-87021-258-3|url=https://archive.org/details/nelsonsnavyships00lave|url-access=registration|quote=Nelson's Navy Lavery.|access-date=2009-05-19}} *{{cite book|last=Lewis|first=Michael|title=A Social History of the Navy|publisher=Ruskin House|location=London|year=1960}}
Category:Military ranks of the Royal Navy Category:Nautical terminology Category:Marine occupations