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PORT OF LONDON SANITARY OFFICES,
KING WILLIAM STREET,
GREENWICH,
January. 1890.
TO THE WORSHIPFUL THE PORT OF LONDON SANITARY
COMMITTEE.
Gentlemen
I have the honour of submitting to you herewith a Half-yearly
Report on the sanitary work done by your officers during the latter six
months of 1889, being the twentieth to which I have signed my name as
your Medical Officer.
During the half-year 9,683 vessels of all classes were visited, inspected, and
reported upon as to their sanitary condition, being for your whole staff an
average of 62 on every working-day.
Of these 318 required cleansing in some form, and in all these cases the
orders given were duly attended to.
Of the total number no fewer than 8,356 (equal 86.29 per cent.) carried
the British flag, the Scandinavian with 521 (equal 5.38 per cent.) being
next in order of frequency.
Six vessels only have been fumigated on account of infectious disease, and
details of these are given in Appendix D.
One hundred and forty structural alterations, involving 131 different vessels,
have been ordered and carried out during the half-year, and all without any
difficulty or objection on the part of the owners.
It sometimes occurs that objections are raised to structural alterations by
masters of vessels simply because they think that to incur any expense,
unless they can show great necessity, would tend to discredit them with their
employers.
In order to support these officers, and at the same time to ensure the
carrying out of both orders and suggestions, I have arranged that in all cases
an official letter should be sent to each owner briefly stating our requirements.
The result has been most encouraging. At the present time only 56
alterations in vessels are outstanding, and in the majority of these the works
have been carried out though not inspected. I would take this opportunity
of urging the extreme importance, both in maintenance of health and also in
the avoidance of expense, of a sanitary supervision of vessels while building.
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