[2] A surgeon's mate was responsible for visiting patients in the sick bay and attending to their needs.
He would make daily rounds of men already in the sick bay, while the loblolly boy would feed, wash and shave bedridden patients.
The mate would prepare and administer medicines in the sick-bay, dress wounds and skin ulcers, and bleeding men who needed it.
He was responsible for maintaining the ship's surgical instruments, for keeping accurate records of medicines and expenditures, for inspecting the cook's pots and pans, and for supervising the loblolly boy.
[4] However, they were comparatively very well paid, earning £9 2s per month in 1815, equivalent to a lieutenant on a flagship and three times as much as a master's mate.