Hospital Corpsman

An interesting trend concerning the development of a modern rating is the Hospital Corpsman. Early day Surgeons were assisted by the Surgeon's Mate. Surgeon's Mates were medical men, and like the Surgeon, were considered non-combatant civil officers. Actually, the Surgeon's Mate was a combination of Yeoman, Corpsman, and Leading Chief. He kept a journal of diseases and treatment, weighed and accounted for every article of medicine, dressed wounds and ulcers and performed blood-letting. He also supervised the orderlies and Loblolly Boys.

Loblolly Boys first appear in Navy records on the 1798 muster roll of USS Constitution. Loblolly actually was a thick gruel served to patients in sick bay, and was also a nautical term for medicine. This is perhaps how the boy who served it to the patients derived his unusual appellation. As the requirements of his job expanded, in 1839, the Navy established the Surgeon's Steward Rating, which in turn became Apothecary in 1866. Navy regulations of 1870 refer to the rating as Bayman (possibly sick-bay-man), and in 1898 it became Hospital Steward, in turn becoming Pharmacist's Mate in 1917 and to the present rating of Hospital Corpsman in 1948. So, from the Loblolly Boy of 1797 to the Hospital Corpsman of today represents a long and interesting trend in the development of a modern rating.