Colour blindness and defective eyesight in officers and sailors in the merchant marine : a criticism of the Board of Trade tests / by Thomas H. Bickerton.

  • Thomas Herbert Bickerton
Date:
1890
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Colour blindness and defective eyesight in officers and sailors in the merchant marine : a criticism of the Board of Trade tests / by Thomas H. Bickerton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)

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    medical experts has been the one— Point out cases where colour blindess or defective sight has led to disaster. A perfectly- fair reply to this would be,— If the eyesight of sailors on ' colliding vessels were tested in court, examples would multiply. Where one witness swears the colour of a light to have been red, while another is equally positive iti was green, there is, in the absence of proof, at least as much reason in believing the correct solution of the discrepancy to be colour blindness on the part of one or other, as to co];iclude it is found by believing one witness to be lying or drunk. But this form of argument is not necessary, for there are now a sufficient number of cases well authenticated where disaster due to colour blindness or defective sight actually occurred or was narrowly averted. The first is to be found in the annual report of the Super- vising Inspector-General of Steamboats to the Secretary of the Treasury, dated Washington, 1880, and reads as follows :— On the night of 5th July 1875, there was a collision near Norfolk, Virginia, between the steam-tug ' Lumberman,' and the steam- ship ' Isaac Bell,' the former vessel bound to, and the latter from, Norfolk. The accident occurred at about 9 P.M. on an ordinary clear night, under circumstances which, until recently, seemed more or less mysterious. The master of the steamer and all his officers made oath that at the time signals were made to the tug, the latter was from one to two points on the steamer's starboard bow, and consequently the steamer's green light only was visible to the approaching vessel. Yet the master of the tug, whose statement was unsupported by any other testimony, asserted that the steamer's red light was exhibited, and signalled accordingly. The discrepancy in the statements was so great that many persons uncharitably charged the master of the tug with being intoxicated, although no evidence was ever offered in support of the charge. By this accident ten persons lost their lives. Upon a visual examination of this officer under the rules during the past summer, and during which time there had been no question as to his sight, by the surgeon of the Marine Hospital at Norfolk, he was found to be colour blind, two examinations having been accorded him, with an interval of ten days between them. A second case is mentioned in the Ship2nng and Mercantile Gazette and Lloyd's List, dated 29th June 1881:— The pilot