Oral History Gallery

Incidents and case studies at sea 4 - Treatment of heat exhaustion

George Hampton

Service: 1949 - 1979

Rate: Warrant Officer Sick Berth Attendant

George joined the Navy as a Sick Berth Attendant (SBA) in March 1949 and specialised in operating theatre work. He served in Royal Naval Hospital Portland and in RNH Bighi in Malta. Whilst serving at Malta he embarked in HMS Daring and assisted with the provision of humanitarian relief after an earthquake on the Greek island of Cephalonia.

Find out what happened onboard HMS Victorious whilst in the Persian Gulf in the 1960s.

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Extract Text (Duration 1.34)

We spent three weeks going up and down the Persian Gulf in pretty stifling weather, and this is where we came across, hmmm, the heat exhaustion with the engine staff... engine room staff and... which gave us a very busy time onboard, you know. One couldn't walk on the decks comfortably because of the heat, and in fact it was so hot that, hmmm, the photographers took photographs of the cooks actually frying an egg on the steel plating on the deck; so it would tell you how hot it was. And we had to rely on hosepipes and that for the crew to cool down and... and get some sort of relief from the temperature. Fortunately in the Sick Bay we had some form of air conditioning and so we were in a cooler environment. But it was necessary in some instances to put some of the engine room staff on the floor and surround them with ice to get their temperatures down. Yes it was the... it was very, very hot indeed.