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34
During the past year 41 such notices have been given, 25 are known to
have been fitted with double bulkheads, and in each instance where this has
been properly done there has been no recurrence of the nuisance, and the men
on board have expressed their satisfaction with the result.
In many instances, after service of this notice, the owners discontinue
altogether the carriage of cargoes of this nature. In the course of my interview
with the Principal Officer, I ascertained that the Board could not
interfere except when a barge came up for registration or re-registration on
account of injury or some condition affecting the terms of the original
registration, or on complaint being made.
I made complaint of a number of barges forthwith, with the result that one
of the barges, on which a deduction from the tonnage on account of crew's
quarters had been made, had that deduction disallowed, a punishment which
would not affect the barge in question, as it only plied within the limits of
the Port.
I pointed this out, and received a letter to the effect that the Board of
Trade thought this question had better be dealt with by the Port of London
Sanitary Authority, and that the Board had instructed their Principal Officer
to co-operate as far as he possibly could.
During May it was necessary to deal with a nuisance arising from a large
quantity of unsound potatoes which had been brought by the s.s. "Clio," of
Trieste, during the previous April.
On the arrival of the vessel in London it was noticed, on removing the
hatches, that the cargo had sunk from 15 to 20 feet, and that the potatoes
were heated and offensive. The vessel when docked was berthed close to a
public road, with the natural consequence that complaints of the nuisance were
soon made to your Officers.
Some of the potatoes were found to be sound, and these were got rid of
as quickly as possible, but very slow progress was made with the work,
and it became necessary to serve a Notice under the Public Health Act
requiring the abatement of the nuisance by the removal of the vessel from the
dock within forty-eight hours. The terms of the Notice were complied with,
a gang of men being taken in the vessel for the special purpose of throwing
the potatoes overboard during the trip from London to Hull.
The vessel sailed for Hull on the 10th May, and the remainder of the cargo,
consisting of over 40,000 bags of potatoes, were thrown overboard at sea.