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By another curious mischance the dispatch of this material coincided
with May Day, -which is observed more as a public holiday in France than in England,
and its arrival in England coincided with a "go-slow" movement of our G.P.O.
employees so that the material -was not received until 5.5.51 - five days later.
The preliminary pathological report ms negative, but not received
by telephone until the Port Health Staff had arrived in Brixham and the second
report -was not received until all precautions had been taken and the ship berthed
at Tilbury®
After removal of the patient at Marseilles the ship's hospital ms
disinfected with SC2 candles and thoroughly cleansedo It had to be used a few
days later owing to the occurrence of a case of Scarlet Fever and a case of Measles
in infant passengers.
To expedite matters it was decided that the Deputy Medical Officer of Health
of the Port of London, the Chief Sanitary Inspector and three members of the
office staff, should proceed to Brixham and join the ship there when she called in
to embark her Channel Pilot. This was effected at 10 a.m., on 7.5.51.
Precautions taken on boarding.
After an address over the ship's broadcasting system, yellow address
cards were distributed to all passengers and European crew members before lunch.'
During the afternoon every passenger and all the European crew were
medically inspected as they came to the tables for interrogation and checking of
destination addresses.
By taking the passengers alphabetically - they were broadcast for in
batches A to C, D to G etc - all the 822 passengers were dealt with in .just over
2 hours and the European crew were called for by departments and similarly dealt
with between 5 and 7 p.m„
The Asian crew were inspected at 6 a0ra«, next day on arrival in the
Thames when they could be examined in daylight on the boat deck.
Total personnel on board were 790 British and 32 Alien passengers,
212 Europeans and 209 Asian crew.
The Chief Sanitary Inspector took charge of the hygiene side and
apprised the quantities of bedding etc., for removal for steam disinfection at
Denton and assessed the cabins etc., for fumigation. His services were most
valuable and a great help in expediting matters on arrival.
Apart from the case landed at Marseilles there were also on board one
case of Scarlet Fever and two cases of Measles which, together with their bedding
etc., were admitted to Denton Hospital on arrival.
In dealing with the close contacts it was found that the Nursing Sister
who had nursed the suspected smallpox case from the beginning, blanket bathed
him etc., was taken ill on 3rd May with intense backache, pains in the limbs
and headache. Her temperature rose steeply to 101° by the evening of 3.5.51 and
fell by lysis during the next four days. At no time did she exhibit a rash.
She had some watery diarrhoea.
She was confined to her cabin throughout.
Had a suspected case of Smallpox not occurred this patient would, no
doubt, have been considered one of 'influenza', but although the longest
incubation period could have been not more than 7 - 9 days the possibility of Contact
fever immediately came to mind.
As a precaution she ms removed to Joyce Green Hospital under the care
of Dr. Marsden, on arrival, where certain tests carried out were negative to smallpox.
The "Ranchi" arrived off Gravesend at 5 a.m., and anchored while the
patients were landed, plus bedding for disinfection in Denton. An ambulance ms
waiting for Sister C..... and she ms transferred to Joyce Green Hospital.
The vessel berthed alongside Tilbury Landing Stage at 8 a.m., and
disembarked her passengers, proceeding into Tilbury Dock at 3 p.m., all times being
strictly to schedule.
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