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9
PORT OF LONDON SANITARY OFFICES,
GREENWICH, S.E.,
January 4th, 1889.
TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE PORT OF LONDON SANITARY
COMMITTEE.
Gentlemen,
I have the honour to present you herewith a brief Report of the sanitary
work carried out in the Port of London by your officers during the second
half of the year 1888.
During this period the various duties of the department have been performed
to my satisfaction by your Inspectors, and, although many minor
changes have been made, with a view to greater efficiency of supervision, it
has not been my duty to report any need for alteration either in the staff or
the general arrangements.
On reference to the Appendices at the end of this Report it will be seen
that a total of 10,050 vessels of all classes have been inspected by your
officers, and I would point out that only complete inspections are included in
this number. Where, for any reasons, as sometimes happens (for instance
when a vessel is actually moving into dock), this cannot be thoroughly carried
out, a few important leading questions are put to the officer in charge at the
time, and the sanitary visitation carried out as soon as possible afterwards.
Of this number (10,050) no fewer than 8,738 (= 86.94 per cent.)
carried the British flag; the Scandinavian, with 483 (= 4.8 per cent.)
being the next in order of frequency.
In 329 cases, or 3.2 per cent. of those visited, it was necessary to order
whitewashing or cleansing of some kind to be carried out, and in all this was
done without any serious trouble.
The masters of two British vessels refused to carry out a verbal cleansing
order, and the formal notice, under the Public Health Act, was therefore
served. This had at once the desired effect.
In one or two instances the masters of foreign vessels refused at first on
the ground that, not being under the British flag, the Port Sanitary Authority
had no power to give such orders.