Sailors and syphilis on Europe's waterways International Health Organizations and the Rhine Commissions, c. 1900-1953

Abstract

This article will focus on efforts to address the problem of sexually-transmitted disease among a maritime labour force in the first half of the twentieth-century as it became a core concern for a wide range of international health organizations. In focusing on those working on the Rhine it challenges existing accounts that have considered the place of seamen only in particular national contexts and which have tended to focus on the open seas. It explores the reasons why, despite repeated efforts to establish wide-ranging surveillance and treatment mechanisms, these remained beyond reach for those seeking to deal with the problem.