View report page

8
There is no law requiring the designs of a vessel to be submitted for
approval to the officers of a Port Sanitary Authority, and, at present, owners
are not sufficiently alive to the importance of obtaining advice on sanitary
arrangements. As a consequence it is often found that a new ship requires
some important alterations involving delay and expense. It certainly is quite
as necessary in a ship as in a house (if not more so) to have the details of
sanitary arrangements properly attended to, and the only satisfactory way to
obtain this is by legislation on the subject.
One other important point in connection with this subject is the cubic
space allowed by the Merchant Shipping Act for seamen.
This is governed by section nine of the Merchant Shipping Amendment
Act of 1867, which enacts, inter alia, that every place in any ship occupied
by seamen or apprentices and appropriated to their use shall have for every
such seaman or apprentice a space of not less than 72 cubic feet, and of not
less than 12 superficial feet measured on the floor or deck of such place,
while by special Act, Lascars and natives of East India are entitled to onehalf
only of this cubic space !
Under the most favourable conditions as regards lighting and ventilation,
and taking into consideration the fact that the whole of the crew do not sleep
in the forecastle at the same time, this space is certainly too small.
This is so thoroughly recognised by all owners who study the welfare of
their crews that, practically, their forecastles never carry the full number for
which they are certified by the Board of Trade, while on the other hand the
indifferent or careless owner will look only to the number which the space is
certified to accommodate.
However crowded a forecastle may be, no action can be taken as long as the
space will allow of the 72 feet per head. It certainly is time to take this
question into consideration with a view to raising the minimum. One hundred
feet per head does not appear to be at all too large an allowance, and its
provision is not likely to meet with serious opposition from the majority of
shipowners, if it is to affect new vessels only, and not made retrospective.
The Lascar minimum of 36 feet is simply absurd, and should certainly
be largely increased.
The custom which the natives have of carrying with them a large chest
renders their case a more serious one.
These chests (one to each man) frequently measure 8, 10, and even 12 cubic
feet, and form a continuous layer over the floor of the forecastle, thereby at
once reducing the height by from 18 inches to two feet.
Thus before the native enters his quarters one-third of his cubic air space
is lost, and he has to live and move in 24 cubic feet, with the additional