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PORT OF LONDON SANITARY OFFICES,
GREENWICH, S.E.
31s£ March, 1903.
TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE PORT OF LONDON
SANITARY COMMITTEE.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present to you my first Annual Report, for the
year ending 31st December last.
It will be noted that the year's work on the whole shows an increase in
nearly all directions over preceding years.
This has been summai-ised in Table A, showing the figures for the year
1902 and for each of the five years preceding.
During the year 33,606 visits of inspection have been made to vessels of all
classes. Of these, 14,245 were in the River, 19,090 in the Docks and Gravesend
district, and 271 were visited in that portion of the Med way which is
within the jurisdiction of the Port Sanitary Authority. (Appendix A.)
Of the total number, 2,934, equal to 8"73 per cent,., required cleaning,
which was done under the verbal orders of your Inspectors. Of the vessels
inspected, 16,336 were from Foreign ports and 17,270 were " Coastwise."
The British vessels numbered 28,122, or 83.68 per cent., Swedish and
Norwegian 2,026, or 6.02 per cent., closely followed by the German with
1,165, or 3.46 per cent.
The nationalities of the vessels inspected will be found in Appendix C.
Thirty-nine seamen, found by your Inspectors on their visits, suffering from
various ailments of a non-infectious character, were referred to the Seamen's
Hospital.
In relation to the abatement of nuisances, structural alterations were ordered
on a total number of 551 vessels. In the case of 350 vessels these have been
carried out. In 36 cases structural alterations ordered in the preceding year
have been carried out during 1902, bringing the total number of vessels on
which alterations have been made up to 386. This number includes
119 alterations with respect to ventilation, 22 related to receptacles for the
storage of drinking water, and 318 to lighting, heating, &c., the total number
of alterations made being 459. (See Appendix F.)
It is worthy of notice that these structural alterations have been carried out
by the owners, after receiving written intimation of the facts from your
Medical Officer, in all cases without recourse to legal proceedings.