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"Reception was not so good as usual, the ship being outside normal range. However I
"learnt that there had been two cases of chickenpox during the voyage. Onset 22nd Nov"ember
and 7th December. The Surgeon stated the cases were typical,the first having come
"aboard in Sydney with the disease. Both had fully recovered, the second being released
"from isolation on 22nd December. The cases had been declared and landed in Southampton.
"I advised the Surgeon that there was no need to re-declare the cases, but he replied
"that he had already entered them on the London Declaration of Health. I then said that I
"would not be boarding off Gravesend, but would inform H.M. Customs Quarantine Pre"ventive
Officer of the position and request him to issue "Free Pratique". The Quarantine
"Preventive Officer was so informed when the Night Watch came on at 2200 hrs.
"This was not the first occasion on which I had spoken to a Ship's Surgeon through
"the Thames Navigation Service, but it was the first on which, as a result of the radio"telephone
conversation, I did not have to board, and as such may be fairly claimed to be
"the first ship "cleared" by radio".
Other instances of the importance of the Port Health Authority's own radio-telephone link
and the Thames Navigation Service are mentioned elsewhere in this report.
Occasionally a vessel voluntarily sends a full Quarantine Message in code which is
decoded by the Boarding Medical Officer from Volume II (Radio) of the International Code of
Signals.
3. Notifications otherwise than by Radio (Regulation 14(1) (b))
Following a change in the distinguishing lights for the Tilbury-Gravesend Ferry, it was
possible for the Authority in July 1960 to introduce for ships requiring the Port Medical Officer
at night the statutory signal of 'a red light over a white light', the lights being not more than six
feet apart, shown at the peak or where the signal can best be seen from the shore.
The present instructions as to signals for ships requiring the Boarding Medical Officer are
therefore as follows:
BY DAY—Fly the Flag Signal L I M
BY NIGHT—Show a Red Light over a White Light
4. Mooring Stations (Regulations 22 to 30)
On arrival of an infected or suspected ship, or any other ship on which there has been during
its current voyage and within the last four weeks before arrival a case of quarantinable
disease (plague, cholera, yellow fever, smallpox, typhus or relapsing fever), the medical officer
may direct that the master take the ship to a 'mooring station' so that the ship does not come
into contact with other ships or the shore.
The mooring stations agreed with the Port of London Authority and the Waterguard Superintendent
of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise are as follows: