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insects crawl from the cargo into the cabin and into the bunks there.The
bulkhead is also frequently defective, and occasionally also a doorway
exists, more or less ill-fitting, which allows offensive liquid and gases,to pass
into the cabin from the hold.
It is thus clear that in the majority of vessels carrying these offensive cargoes
there exists conditions constituting a serious nuisance, not only injurious to
health, but even dangerous to life.
The following deaths from suffocation, on barges carrying offensive cargoes,
have come under the notice of your Officers during the last four years:—
On the 30th January, 1900, the ketch "Susie," of Littlehampton, 75,233,
lying off Silvertown, laden with a cargo of "saccharine scum," was boarded by
one of your Inspectors, who, on opening the companion, found the dead bodies of
the Master of the vessel and his wife. At a coroner's inquest, held at Woolwich
on the 2nd February, 1900, it was proved that the couple had been
suffocated in their sleep by the fumes from the cargo entering the cabin.
On the 29th July, 1900, two men were found dead in the after-cabin of the
barge " Webster," of Rochester, 47,949, lying at Wakeley's Wharf, Southwark,
laden with dung and vegetable refuse. At the coroner's inquest, held at
Southwark on the 1st August, the jury found that the men came by their
deaths in the cabin of the barge by "accidental suffocation due to impure air,"
and made the following rider: "That, in the opmion of the jury, barges
"conveying manure and other impure cargoes should be specially constructed."
On the 27th September, 1901, the Master of the barge "Herbert Tomkins,"
off Blackfriars, was found dead in the after-cabin, having been, as the evidence
at the subsequent inquest clearly showed, suffocated by the carbonic acid gas
evolved from the cargo, which consisted of refuse from streets, stables,
vegetable markets and breweries.
The cabin of the barge was inspected by your Medical Officer. The air was
so impure that a match would not burn in any situation lower than three feet
from the cabin floor.
On the 1st July, 1903, in the West India Dock, the insensible body of the
Master of the barge " William Hordle," of Rochester, was found in the forecabin
of the barge. Assistance being obtained, he was with difficulty, owing
to the foul condition of the air in the cabin, taken out, and on medical
assistance being obtained, the man was found to be dead.
At the subsequent inquest, the verdict was given as one of death from
natural causes.
The opinion of your Inspector, together with the evidence of the men who
went into the cabin, and who were nearly overcome by the foul gases, shows