[Lee writes about his adventure as a purser on a freighter during his summer break plus some final medical school experiences.]
July 24, 1946
You were concerned that I had to lie around Baltimore wasting three precious weeks waiting for something to turn up. well, they were precious indeed, but not wasted. Through all these years I have tried to trust the Lord and expect His guidance.
Being alone was good for me. I had time to rest. I took long walks in the park and lay on the grass to read, meditate and plan. My internship applications went out to six different hospitals as far away as Chicago. I got three rejections but did not take it to mean I was inferior to other applicants. There is tremendous competition for these top notch places.
However the unhurried meditations brought this to my attention: maybe I was wrong in wanting to leave Baltimore. Dr. Firor had recommended a hospital not far from Hopkins with a good reputation. I had not heeded him because I thought I wanted to go farther afield, but now I gave it some consideration.
It, called "Church Home and Hospital", was begun by the Church of England in connection with a home for the Aged, but now the Home is only a small port of it. The best men practice here, not only the cream of Hopkins but other schools as well. The admission statistics are large, operations alone running to 3000 a year.
After duly considering all these matters I put in an application, interviewed three men, two of them with Hopkins' connections, and was promptly accepted as one of their seven interns for next year. It is actually a "rotating" Johns Hopkins training, with experience in all fields. The fact that Edgar Allen Poe died here shouldn't count against it since he had to die somewhere!
I had also put in an application for a job on some ship leaving the port of Baltimore, The day after I signed on at Church Home, I was called to the S.S. William Floyd as purser. On these boats pursers act as medical officers, and they gave me a Pharmacist's Mate rating. The captain and most of the crew are quite young men. Only the Chief Engineer is as old as fifty. I have comfortable quarters and a good pay. We have no assignment yet so although technically on duty I have very little to do. Surely the hand of the lord was behind all these plans for my summer.
July 26, 1946
The Chief Engineer, Mr. Londqvist, has a wife and two daughters staying on board until we leave port, still an indefinite date. Mrs. Londqvist is a thorough and fundamental Christian. We've just been talking for an hour and a half about being "born again" .
One unfortunate habit of Christian people is not being able to recognize each other but just to assume the other is either a heathen or at least of unsound views. Goodness knows there is evil enough in my life but when people begin on no as though I had never heard of God they make me despair!
There was a fellow/who rode in the same seat with me once all the way from Baltimore to New York. He never said one word of any kind, but just before he got off he handed me a religious tract. How much better had he done it at the beginning! We might have enjoyed some measure of Christian fellowship the whole way.
Mrs. Londqvist's "testimony" is wholesome and it is so heartening for me to talk to another Christian in a place like this.
July 29, 1946
Still in port. I was greatly thrilled the other a night to see the aurora borealis which appears this far south only a few times a year on very clear dark nights.
About 10 p.m. the sky suddenly filled with a luminescent glow that gave one the feeling of something extra-ordinary about to happen. It was as though the periphery of the earth were outlined with giant flashlights shooting their rays into billions of miles of unknown space. Now white, now blue, now faintly red, the rays all seemed to meet directly over my head. I felt myself a worshipper in the cathedral of the universe, its glittering dome uphold by pillars of light.
It was a glorious sight and nothing could have made me feel more finite and helpless. When my eyes cane back to the myriads of tiny harbor lights and shing over then I picked out the most powerful light that man could produce, the airport searchlight, I felt humble indeed. It gave me a true and dramatic perspective or man’s relationship to God whose glory the magnificent aurora borealis declared.
My conscience troubles me to be sitting here well fed, well housed, and paid more for three days' "labor" than the average Indian receives for a whole year. I am surely not worth that much, but... "unto whom much is given, of him shall much be required". I am well aware of the responsibility laid upon me.
August 21, 1946
I'm writing this from the train enroute to Baltimore to tell you the S.S. William Floyd arrived back in home waters Monday. My 47 days' voyage netted me $10 a day, therefore I highly recommend this kind of vacation to other impecunious students.
We took a load of coal to Italy landing it at a port just above Naples. What a change in Naples from the last time I was there! The beautiful harbor wrecked and littered with half-sunken hulks of ships; the town shattered, and people poor and dirty. Garibaldi Station looks like the ruins of ancient Rone, and even Vesuvius is silent. It brought the war very close, especially the three large cemeteries of American G.I, 's who give their lives there only last year.
The radio operator and I made a trip to Rome. I took him to see, among other things, the Coliseum where I recalled the time, Dad, you led me there by the hand when I was five. Rome is devoid of soap and toilet paper. The hotel maid lent me her own small cake of soap, and as for the other, they still publish the Rome Daily News.
I was called “PURSER” on the way out, but “Doc” on the homeward stretch. I had a lot of medical business and count it all valuable experience. There were all manner of ailments from body lice to middle ear infection.
One of the seamen said he had never seen so much sickness. “But then,” he added, “other times men never report sickness unless they have confidence in the medical officer. We seldom have Johns Hopkins’ doctors on board.”
November 25, 1946
The Surgery quarter is over and what a relief! It demanded tremendous energy, and at the same time we had Ophthalmology, the hardest of the fourth your courses. We studied 40 patients from all over the United States, in the various surgical fields.
For my oral exam I drew Dr. Blalock, professor of Surgery who devised the technique for curing congenital heart defects (of "blue babies"). Although he is such a famous man he is so considerate of the students. He does not grill us on technical details but asks rather what we are interested in, how we are progressing, where we came from and where will we go after interning. Then he asks us for suggestions and criticisms of his surgery course!
I had studied shock treatment for two years, but never fully understood it until one night a six-year old boy horribly mutilated through a street-car accident, was brought in in profound shock. I spare you the details. He looked all but gone and a priest was brought in to say the final prayer. I offered one of my own that the child might live and not die. In less than an hour he revived and eventually recovered.
On that occasion I learned unforgettably how shock affects one and how we must treat it. I believe the child lived because God had His instruments around that operating table -- all of us dedicated young men in our early 20's and two of us planning to be missionaries. "God could do so much to heal His world if He only had the instruments." Not only surgeons but scientists too in their laboratories are God's instruments whether they realize it or not. Even ten years ago we did not have the techniques or God-given drugs that we use today.
Our training in eye work is excellent. During the course we spent a whole afternoon each week at the Eye Clinic. I never fail to envision the sick of India as I work and learn these days, for the time is not far off when I shall be able to help them.
Tissie has moved up to Baltimore and we are now nicely settled in our small apartment. She is pleased with her job at WCBM, a very challenging one.
DI. Firor conducts a Bible class at his home just for fourth year students on Sunday afternoons. Wives too are welcome to the class and the sumptuous supper later on, and it is a weekly event Tissie and I hold in great esteem.