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At 08.00 hours the following morning when he was again dye for duty, the Officer complained
of a pain on breathing and was passing blood in his urine.
On arrival at Gravesend, Dr. Jones saw the patient and was of the opinion that he had an
injury to his left kidney and there was quite a bit of swelling of his loin. His skull and spine
seemed unaffected.
Dr. Jones reported that the vessel was proceeding to Convoys Wharf, Deptford, where she was
due to arrive at about 18.00 hours, and requested that arrangements be made for the patient's
admission to hospital by ambulance, the Master having expressed a preference for the Miller
General Hospital, Greenwich.
The circumstances were fully explained to the Emergency Bed Service and they readily agreed
agreed to co-operate to the extent of trying to obtain admission of the patient to the Miller General
Hospital, Greenwich.
At 17.10 hours the Emergency Bed Service telephoned that the Miller Hospital was unable to
take the case but that they had arranged for his admission to the Dreadnought Seamens Hospital,
Greenwich and an ambulance would be at Convoy's Wharf at 18.15 hours to remove the patient to
hospital.
In the meantime the vessel's London Agents — Messrs. Fred Dessen & Co. — were informed of
the arrangements and they agreed to supervise the patient's removal to hospital on the arrival of
the ambulance at Convoy's Wharf, which was duly affected at 18.30 hours.
Seamen's Hospital subsequently reported that "extensive X-ray showed nothing abnormal
and since the patient was extremely anxious to go back to his own country, he was discharged on
the 30th November.
s.s. "ZYPENBERG" (Outward Bound) - MULTIPLE INJURIES
Your Deputy Medical Officer, Dr. W.M. Willoughby, reported on the above incident, as follows
"A message was received per 'Walkie-Talkie' Radio telephone from the tug "Contest" in
attendance on the outward bound Dutch vessel "Zypenberg" that a serious accident had
occurred on board and that the ship was in urgent need of medical assistance.
"The message was received at 18.10 hours when the "Zypenberg" was in the vicinity of
Grays. Interception was affected at the top of Northfleet Hope and I boarded the ship at
approximately 18.30 hours.
"It appeared that the patient — a first voyager — had tried to cross the hatches of No. 5
Hold in the darkness and disappeared from view in the empty hold where a hatch cover had
not been replaced. He fell at least 40 feet. One man only say him disappear and nobody
saw him land at the bottom of the empty hold.
"On arrival I descended the hold and found the patient lying on his face, conscious and with
no obvious head injuries or signs of haemorrhage. Leg movement was normal. He had, in
my opinion, a broken arm and possible internal injuries and complained of pains in his back
in the lumbar region. The ship had carried an inward cargo of iron ore and there was a
liberal amount of these sweepings everywhere.
"I administered ½-grain Omnopon at 18.40 hours and sent for assistance from the Kent Police,
"C" Division, who arrived with commendable promptitude at 19.15 hours.
"The patient was completely splinted into immobility, turned on to his back and on to a
Neil Robertson Stretcher. This in turn was placed on an ordinary stretcher and the whole
outfit hoisted by 4 point suspension on the ship's main derrick, thence overside into the
"Howard Deighton".
The patient was landed at the Royal Terrace Pier, Gravesend and conveyed by ambulance
to the Gravesend and North Kent Hospital.
"The present incident is a parallel one to that which I attended in the s.s. "Elm Hill" about
two years ago, but today had the added difficulty of darkness and the flith of the ore sweepings
which covered the decks and everything one touched.
The prompt and skilled assistance of the Police team — incidentally the Sergeant in
Charge was the same Officer who so ably assisted in the "Elm Hill" incident - is deserving
of praise. I am sure the co-operation of the Police was much appreciated by myself.
Your Medical Officer, anticipating the wishes of your Worshipful Committee, wrote to the
Chief Superintendent of the "C" Division, Kent County Constabulary, Gravesend, asking him to
convey to the Sergeant in Charge and to the members of his team our very grateful thanks for the
prompt and skilled assistance which they rendered on this occasion.
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