Dolphincraft Senior Apprentice Book
1 - Common Dolphin Injuries
One of the most important things about dolphins is that they are like any other human patient that is injured; they are distressed, and need compassion and soothing. Take the time to talk to them as intelligent beings, and reassure.
The most common injuries are skin abrasions and broken jaws. Dolphins are also prone to respiratory infections, to be treated with herbs.
The skin is treated thus:
Like human skin, cleanse it with redwort and keep an eye on it. If it is deep enough to penetrate the blubber layer, then it will require stitches, sewing the skin back together so that it can heal properly. If this deep of a wound is present, it may be necessary to treat the dolphin for shock, as you would for a human.
Broken jaws:
If it is just broken, wrap lightly and give painkillers. A displaced jaw will need to be set. When dealing with a broken jaw, it is necessary that the dolphin be fed amash of fish, as it cannot eat on its own. They do NOT like this, for obvious reasons, so when they take it, give them a good scritch or rub, and spend time with it.
Shock:
A person, or a dolphin, in shock has suffered loss of oxygen to their body tissues. What to look for if you suspect that they are in shock is if they are pale, their skin is most and clammy, and their pulse is rapid and weak. This would be harder to tell in a dolphin, but checking their pulse is the best bet. They may be restless and anxious, their breathing shallow, labored, gasping, or noisy. They may feel nauseous and have vomited or are vomiting, and confused. To treat this, make sure, first, that they are breathing adequately, their airway is open, their circulation is good, and any bleeding is under control. If possible and if it would not harm them, raise their legs (use a sling in the infirmary for a dolphin) to help the blood flow to their brain. Do not allow them to intake anything, as this may cause vomiting and choking. Get immediate healer attention.
2 - Dolphin Physicals
During the physical, talk to the dolphin and let her know what is going on. Weigh and measure the patient with the special slings available in the infirmary. Next, check the skin carefully for abrasions or pock marks. These should be carefully cleaned with redwort, or if they penetrate the blubber layer, stitched together. Injuries and such are covered further in the Common Dolphin Injuries class.
Check the eyes and the teeth; the eyes should be clear and bright, and the teeth should look healthy. After that, take a piece of gauze and swab the blowhole gently, examining the mucus carefully. It should be clear, or very close to clear. If it is not, it could be a sign of infection.
3 - Elementary Backstroke
The swimmer flips over onto their back, pushing off with their legs from the wall. They kick lightly underwater with their lower legs. Simultaneously, they reach above and behind their head with their left arm. It enters the water smoothly, and they pull it down to their side in a fluent s-shaped path. As their left enters the water, so does their right arm exit, reaching above reaching above and behind their head, following the same course their left did, only on their opposite side. The stroke quickly brings them to the end of the lane and they take a hold of the lane wall to right themselves.
4 - Butterfly
Swimmer starts by pushing off the wall and glides with their head down and arms level with their head, making an 'A' shape. After a few moments they push their arms up and out of the water and pull them back under in front of them. While this is being done, a sharp dolphin kick should be made, done by holding the legs together and bringing them up and down once. After the arms are about halfway to their sides, the palms should revolve in and out once by turning the wrist, and slide next to their sides. While this is being done, another dolphin kick should be made. Arms are now slid to their sides and the swimmer should glide for a moment, taking a breath either by tilting their head up or to the side. While breathing, the swimmer needs to bring their arms up again together in the 'A' and repeat the stroke for length of the lane. Note: This is the most physically demanding stroke and even Sr. Apprentices should have quite some trouble with it.
Written by Tiri.
** This seems to be hard to visualize, and I (Jez) found a great page for it. http://www.erols.com/dgled/butterfly.html
5 - Log: Swimming Instruction
A Sr. App must teach at least one diving lesson along with swim and log it. It must be sent to Jmen-or-Up via E-Mail for review. If satisfactory, you pass; else, it will be critiqued and assistance lended.
Just because you've completed both your logs, or have already done one of the logs, doesnt mean that you have to stop. You're free to continue logging your classes, and teaching as a Sr. Apprentice; if you show, consistently, that you are a good teacher, the need for logs may even be judged unnecessary. With permission, you may simply send the staff with the name of the class, the people who participated, and any comments you have.
Ask your mentor or a staff member to review your log, and get their email from them.
6 - Log: Diving Instruction
A Sr. App must teach at least one diving lesson along with swim and log it. It must be sent to Jmen-or-Up via E-Mail for review. If satisfactory, you pass; else, it will be critiqued and assistance lended.
Just because you've completed both your logs, or have already done one of the logs, doesnt mean that you have to stop. You're free to continue logging your classes, and teaching as a Sr. Apprentice; if you show, consistently, that you are a good teacher, the need for logs may even be judged unnecessary. With permission, you may simply send the staff with the name of the class, the people who participated, and any comments you have.
Ask your mentor or a staff member to review your log, and get their email from them.
7 - Deep Dive
The deep dive consists of two parts:
The class is usually done from a ship; the first part of a dive down to enter the water at 45 degrees, shown and demonstrated to the apprentices. The teacher dives into the water, shows the techniques, how its done, and gives the students a chance to try. Its important to keep the legs straight, arms out, but its essentially very similar to the Basic Dive, the class taught to Apprentices.
The second part requires dolphins. You show them how to hold onto the dorsal fin, and then go down into the water. Explain that it is possible to go deeper than the usual dive with the dolphins help. Poses should be two: one going down, one for the dolphin if its a player dolphin, and then one re-emerging to the surface.
8 - Antiquities
The ability to identify artifacts you find in the sea is an important part of being a dolphineer. If youa re able to identify an object you find, you will learn more about what has happened in the ocean in that area.
The first step in identifying any object that has been in the sea for more than a few months is removing the encrustations that have grown on it. The best thing to use for this is a mild acid back, such as vinegar, or talk with a Smith for an acid that wont eat the metal.
Next, you need to examine it for any markings. A technique that works well for this is doing a rubbing of it. This will allow you to spot any marks in the surface that are hard to see with the naked eye. It also makes a record of the surface, so that if you lose or damage it, you have a copy.
Since the object came out of the sea, it is a good wager that it is something to do with the Sea Craft. If there are any letters on it, or a name, try and decipher them, then search the Sea Craft records for occurrences of those letters or names. If you are able to identify who the object belonged to, that will help a lot in both getting an age on it, and figuring out what it was. Note: If you can't find it in the Sea Craft records, try the Dolphin Craft library. We sometimes have records that the Sea Craft doesn't.
As an example, look at the piece of metal in the back of this book. You can see that there are lots of fine markings on one side, and a name on the other. The name is Sionah. After I determined that, I went to the Sea Craft records, and searched for that name. As it turned out, Sionah was a Master Cartographer, and this was part of a gift to him when he received his mastery. This allowed me to determine that it was from a shipwreck 43 turns ago, in which several master Sea Crafters died.
All references to worlds and characters based on Anne McCaffrey's fiction are © Anne McCaffrey 1967, 2000, all rights
reserved, and used by permission of the author.
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