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air inside the forecastle about forty times per hour. This, of course, is
impracticable owing to the small space to be dealt with, and to the deficiency
of means for the extraction of foul and introduction of fresh air is due in a
great measure the foetid atmosphere characteristic of the ordinary forecastle.
The common practice is to place a six-inch cowl ventilator through the deck,
and this frequently opens immediately over a bunk. This type of ventilator
generally acts as an "intake," with the result that the occupant of the bunk
receives the bulk of the supply of fresh air and promptly stops up the
ventilator. Any suggestions for its removal are usually met by a protest from
the owners that it has been put there by direction of the Board of Trade.
The practice of stopping up the ventilators is very common, and arises from
the fact that the ventilators used are of a wrong type, being inlets instead of
outlets, and also from their being placed in an unsuitable position.
What should be aimed at is the removal of the heated foul air from the upper
portion of the crew's quarters, and a supply of fresh air from outside through
ventilators placed in the doors, or, in the case of lower forecastles, by "downtake"
ventilators carried through the deck and opening near the floor.
The practice of placing ventilators over bunks, or rather bunks under
ventilators, is so obviously wrong, that it is not easy to understand why such
an arrangement should ever have been sanctioned, even by any person with
the most elementary knowledge of the principles of ventilation. It is generally
found that when the first rough weather is experienced, the ventilators are
in danger of being washed away; they are thereupon removed and the opening
covered over with canvas, which is securely fixed and painted.
On many vessels it is found that, during the winter months, the stove
funnel is led up through the ventilator and the space between this pipe and
the ventilator is blocked in, the polluted air which collects generally in the
upper part of the quarters thus has no possible way of being removed and is
respired over and over again. Many sailors suffer from tuberculosis of the
lungs, and in consequence expire numbers of bacilli at each expiration; it is
obvious that the risk of the other occupants being infected under these
conditions is very great.
On the question of the lighting of crew spaces, the following instance
occurred during November last.
A steamer of 1,108 tons, which was built in 1900, was lying in the Upper
Pool, and on the Inspector going into the crew's quarters he found that all the
available lamps, namely, four in number, had been lighted in order to provide
sufficient light for the crew to see.
The visit was made in broad daylight.