Beatty's box.

William Beatty, the surgeon aboard the Victory who tended Nelson in his final moments, had an unusual set of surgical instruments, put together to his own specification In 2005, the bicentenary of the battle of Trafalgar, much attention focused on Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, his achievements, and untimely death at the hands of a French sharpshooter firing from the Redoubtable. Perhaps we should spare a moment to reflect on the surgeon who was faced with the unpleasant task of realising that his much loved commander's life was fast ebbing away. Sir William Beatty, who attained notoriety for tending Nelson and doing the postmortem examination. He went on to obtain an MD in 1817, be knighted in 1831, and be appointed as physician to the Greenwich Hospital; he died in 1842. Surgeons on all royal naval vessels had many roles: physician, surgeon, dietician, counsellor, and friend. Apart from using their diagnostic and dispensing skills, they had to be prepared to manage fractures, sprains, burns, battle strikes, and suicide attempts. Mr William Beatty, with his two assistants (Mr Westenburgh and Mr Smith) and a few loblolly boys (assistants to the surgeons, who also dispensed " loblolly " or gruel), would care for sick sailors in the forward sickbay of the 102 gun flagship (ships of 100 or more guns should have had five assistant surgeons). At Trafalgar, the surgeon worked on the orlop deck, below the waterline, in a dim cabin near the dispensary. In combat, the cockpit, on the larboard side, was ready for casualties. To us, the surgical tools used 200 years ago seem basic. All grades of surgeon carried pocket sets, and ships were likely to have more than one set of surgical instruments on board. Extra items not seen in the capital sets—probes, syringes, scissors, and cupping equipment—were available. At this stage of the Napoleonic war (with 10 more years to run) surgeons had to buy their own instruments, and a capital set would cost about 20 guineas. Later in the war, sets were provided. The instruments were approved by the Royal College of Surgeons of London and the Sick and Hurt Board (the governing body for naval medical services). William Beatty's personal set is well designed, compact, and unusual in several respects. Having been transported, with due reverence, from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich for the …