Category Archives: medicine 19th c

Book Giveaway Countdown1

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COUNTDOWN DAY 1 to the 150th anniversary of the famous Battle of Lissa, and a chance to win a signed copy of the book about the ship’s surgeon who was there.

Ephraim M Epstein, 1829 - 1913

Ephraim M Epstein, 1829 – 1913

It was a magnificent battle, valiantly fought and won in two hours. Italian casualties ran to hundreds. Austria had only thirty-eight lost, 138 hurt. Like other naval Surgeons, Dr Ephraim Epstein combined all three branches of medicine. He was physician, diagnosing and prescribing; he was apothecary, preparing and dispensing medicine; and he was surgeon, performing operations. As he worked, Ephraim learned more about the triumph: how proud the men were of their Admiral, how he had drilled them in manoeuvers, in gunnery, how he planned the ramming. Most of all he showed he loved his men, he  believed in them. Late at night, exhausted and exhilarated by all he had witnessed, Ephraim began to compose  a description of the extraordinary day.

For a chance to win a copy of The Extraordinary Dr Epstein, answer the quiz question on Wednesday 20 July 2016.

Posts over the last week are excerpts from The Extraordinary Dr Epstein, Chapter 20, Battle. Ephraim’s epic poem about the battle won him an award from Emperor Franz Joseph. Author great granddaughter still seeks that poem! Go HERE for a non-fiction page on the famous Battle of Lissa, why it was fought, what else it is famous for and what happened next. As for Dr Epstein, his 600 florin award and many more adventures lie ahead, including true love and America’s wild West.

Book Giveaway Countdown5

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COUNTDOWN DAY 5 to the 150th anniversary of the famous Battle of Lissa, and a chance to win a signed copy of the book about the ship’s surgeon who was there.

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On the morning of 20 July 1866 Tegetthoff ordered Austria’s armada into three divisions — his ironclads at the front, then unarmoured wooden ships, then smaller gunboats and auxiliaries. Ephraim readied his implements and bandages, then led prayers in the surgery with his assistant. Firing began and they went on deck. Seehund‘s orders were to stay on the fringes with the other smaller ships. After the crackle and boom of initial cannon fire, amid thick clouds of gunsmoke the two lines of ironclads closed, imperial Austrian black against Italy’s grim grey. In moments, Tegetthoff’s Ferdinand Max led his ships straight through a gap in the enemy line. Once through, each Austrian vessel turned to barrage the Italians broadside-to-broadside in rolling repeated roars.

For a chance to win a copy of The Extraordinary Dr Epstein, answer the quiz question on Wednesday 20 July 2016.

Excerpt from Chapter 20, Battle. Ephraim’s epic poem about the battle won him an award from Emperor Franz Joseph. Author great granddaughter still seeks that poem! Go HERE for a non-fiction page on the famous Battle of Lissa, why it was fought, what else it is famous for and what happened next.

Book Giveaway Countdown6

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COUNTDOWN DAY 6 to the 150th anniversary of the famous Battle of Lissa, and a chance to win a signed copy of the book about the ship’s surgeon who was there.

lissa1The Seehund sailed alongside large vessels, a small, single-gunned wooden warship nipping among the tall-masted frigates. Tegetthoff’s fleet hove into view. Painted sleek, threatening black, in total they were twenty-six ships, and seven of them were ironclads. Word came: bombarding of Lissa’s port had begun. Further word: the Italian flotilla was twice as big as Austria’s. Worse, twelve of these were modern ironclads, nine even had iron hulls.

For a chance to win a copy of The Extraordinary Dr Epstein, answer the quiz question on Wednesday 20 July 2016.

Excerpt from Chapter 20, Battle. Ephraim’s epic poem about the battle won him an award from Emperor Franz Joseph. Author great granddaughter still seeks that poem! Go HERE for a non-fiction page on the famous Battle of Lissa, why it was fought, what else it is famous for and what happened next.

Book Giveaway Countdown7

By Posted in 19th century emigrant, Battle of Lissa, Ephraim Epstein, family history, historical novel, medicine 19th c Tagged , , , , , Leave a comment

One week til the 150th anniversary of the famous Battle of Lissa, and a chance to win a signed copy of the book about the ship’s surgeon who was there. Countdown Day 7.

lissa28After a whirl of uniform fittings, goodbyes and letters home, Dr Ephraim M Epstein was commissioned ship’s surgeon on board the Feuerspeier Battery, off Venice. No sooner had he gained his sea legs than he was transferred to the corvette Seehund. What different circumstances to his voyage across the Atlantic in the bowels of a leaky merchant ship; Ephraim savoured the taut sails, the wind, summer’s clear Mediterranean skies and the grand sight of the ships of the line as they patrolled the coast off Venice. But suddenly now they were sailing and steaming southeast to join the fleet directly under the command of Admiral Tegetthoff himself. The Italian navy had commenced besieging the island of Lissa, defence outpost of Austria’s key naval base on the Dalmatian coast.

For a chance to win a copy of The Extraordinary Dr Epstein, answer the quiz question on Wednesday 20 July 2016.

Excerpt from Chapter 20, Battle. Ephraim’s epic poem about the battle won him an award from Emperor Franz Joseph. Author great granddaughter still seeks that poem! Go HERE for a non-fiction page on the famous Battle of Lissa, why it was fought what else it is famous for and what happened next.

 

First clash of ironclad fleets

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lissa27July 1866, the Austrian Imperial Navy races into action for a day that goes down in naval history. 150 years ago this month, it is the first warfare between ironclads, triumph although outgunned and outnumbered, ramming as a winning tactic, influence on warship design for 50 years… and Ephraim M Epstein was there.

Behind the scenes of the biographical novel, click here for a NEW page giving a non-fiction account of this famous event.

As rumors built,

By Posted in Battle of Lissa, Ephraim Epstein, historical novel, medicine 19th c Tagged , , , , 1 Comment

httpsupload.wikimedia.orgwikipediacommons00fDie_Seeschlacht_bei_Lissa.jpg… and news broke of Bismarck’s outrageous actions Ephraim’s personal interest grew. Talk among the medics turned from the massive losses of the American Civil War to the horrible death count in the Crimean War only a decade ago. ‘The only good thing that comes of war is medical progress,’ his chief surgeon harrumphed. ‘And opportunities, especially for doctors.’

Ephraim saw younger physicians seeking military commissions. Here was his chance — a test of courage in battle conditions, a gain of medical experience, an escape from claustrophobic Vienna, and threats on two fronts, by land and by sea, with no other nation coming to Austria’s aid. This was the answer for Ephraim, a call and determination he’d not felt since his decision to go to America.

Vienna, 1866:  Dr Epstein dares to take up a new challenge which will see him shine in one of naval history’s most famous events, the Battle of Lissa. Its 150th anniversary is next month. In Chapter 19, Fierce as a Leopard, Light as an Eagle, Ephraim overcomes his own impatience and pride to pass official exams and be commissioned ship’s surgeon in the Austrian Imperial Navy. His epic poem about the battle won him an award from Emperor Franz Joseph. Author great granddaughter still seeks that poem. Contact via this site if you can help!

Dinners and parties,

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… concerts, lectures and dances. Ephraim had looks, intelligence, bright liveliness, he was a linguist, a scholar, physician, he told fascinating tales of America and Turkey… and he was unmarried. Through friends and medical colleagues he was introduced to sisters and daughters whenever he socialized. He met pretty women, and intelligent women, and pretty, intelligent women. But though he laughed, waltzed and conversed, he was not drawn to anyone. He realized he had lived so long as a married man with and without Rachel that he did not know how to fall in love.

Divorced from his cousin-wife, in Chapter 19, Fierce as a Leopard, Light as an Eagle, Ephraim is in Vienna, 1863-66. He’s a physician in the prestigious Vienna General Hospital and stuck back in Europe and Judaism because of the promise to his mother. But this restless man will soon drive himself to yet another drastic life change.

 

She explains…

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Well, well the great granddaughter/author is talking about me again. Here in this interview and live on 16th June at Richmond Adult Community College http://www.racc.ac.uk Events.

The way she describes my life and times — as if it were an adventure!

Isolating existing cases…

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…was paramount. They set up beds, carried in the sick, and, under Ephraim’s direction Rachel and the helpers ministered to them, sponging, cooling, getting liquids into them. There was no point in bleeding or cupping. At first ten a day died. After a week this slowed to four a day. By the end of a month, it was four a week. Those who survived were scarred, disfigured with pitted pocks all over the face where massage room at Royal Naval Hospital, Haslar. GJ Gordon. wellcome.ac.uk (2)the vicious disease always manifested most strongly. Some were blinded by smallpox, some crippled by its effect on joints. Overall a third of those infected would die. Among children Ephraim knew eighty per cent would die.

Ephraim is called to Macedonia to help in a smallpox outbreak. In Chapter 16, Epidemic, Rachel proves herself a worthy, skilful, kind assistant in the horrific and sad work. As the epidemic fades he has new respect for her. Despite her previous betrayals, perhaps the marriage can work…

My husband. Look at your beard!

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They clasped hands. She wore dark green, and a lighter green bonnet, dark curls at her forehead, that creamy skin, hardly any wrinkles, those shining eyes. People surged around them, stevedores in baggy trousers, fezzed porters in kaftans.

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Ephraim startled and looked to her left, to her right, tried to peer over her shoulder. ‘The porter promised to bring all the luggage,’ she said in the Belarusian of their youth.

‘But where is Sarah?’

‘In the end, she did not come.’ Rachel watched his stunned expression. ‘I am sorry. They kept her.’

It is 1860 and Ephraim has begun as a medical missionary in Saloniki, Turkey  (today Thessalonika, Greece), at last reuniting with the wife he left in Brest-Litovsk ten years earlier. In Chapter 14, A Man Shall Cleave Unto His Wife, the mis-matched couple try for love while Ephraim struggles to convert the local Sephardic Jews to Christianity. And he fumes: will he never be allowed to meet his 12-year-old daughter?