“[…] On the other hand, I would appreciate your assistance in a rather delicate operation as soon as there is enough light: a fracture with cranial perforation. I must trepan poor Plaice, and I would like to do it today. I’m told the weather will worsen, and it is clear that to operate one needs a solid footing and an immobile patient. I have a Lavoisier drill, a magnificent instrument with extraordinary cutting power: and, if you wish, you may turn the crank!”
The crew of the Surprise, no different from others, were generally hypochondriac and morbid, and they loved a surgical procedure almost as much as they loved hunting prey. But while the amputation of an arm or leg of a companion had consequences and disadvantages that the men were highly sensitive to, a trepanation had none: the patient needed only to heal to be whole again, restored as new, with the glory of a silver plate and a story to tell that would last for him and his friends until the grave.
Dr. Maturin had already performed this operation at sea before, always with the best light, and thus on deck, and many old sailors of the Surprise had witnessed the scene. Now, together with all their companions, they watched again: they saw Joe Plaice’s scalp removed, the skull exposed, the saw screech as a disc of bone was cut out, the crank turned solemnly; they saw a three-shilling coin screwed into the hole, hammered by the gunsmith until it became concave and thin; and finally the scalp replaced, precisely stitched by the chaplain.
It was extraordinarily satisfying: the captain had gone pale, as had Barret Bonden, the patient’s cousin. Blood poured down Joe’s neck in torrents… the brain clearly visible… something not to be missed even for a mountain of money… instructive as well; and they enjoyed it to the fullest. It was fortunate, moreover, because they would have no other gratifications for a long time, and for some of them, it would be the last. The storm, signaled by the rising long heavy wave from the north and west, by the barometer, struck them sooner and with more violence than they had expected.