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72 cubic feet, and 12 square feet of floor space respectively. In the Colonial and
Swedish regulations the minimum of 140 and 18 is for the space set apart for berthing
or sleeping, and space appropriated for messing, washing, &c., would appear to be
additional. Such a step would be a great advance on existing conditions. In the
Colonial regulations certain local trade vessels, and in the Swedish vessels of less than
200 tons register, are exempt from those provisions.
•
The Colonial regulations make a departure in legislating specially for officers,
allotting in ships of 300 tons and upwards to each officer up to at least four, a separate
room with not less than 180 cubic feet of space, and in the case of a limited class of
vessels of less than 300 tons gross register for each two officers a separate room with a
content of not less than 350 cubic feet.
Another striking provision is found in the Norwegian regulations where in vessels
oE 800 tons and upwards two bunk cabins and separate mess rooms shall be provided
for the crew. But on passenger vessels of 3,000 tons and upwards (where the crew
would of course run to large numbers) this arrangement may be modified, subject to
the preliminary deposit and approval by the appointed officers, of a plan of the proposed
cabin arrangement.
The Australian regulations prohibit crew's quarters below the winter load line, and
the Swedish, below the main deck unless the ports are 2½ feet above winter load line.
Ventilation.—With reference to this much discussed, and in regard to crew's
quarters, admittedly difficult question—the Australian Regulations alone adopt a
volumetric standard.
They provide that "Every place in a ship appropriated to the berthing
"accommodation of seamen or apprentices shall be ventilated in such a
"manner as to ensure a flow of not less than 3,000 cubic feet of fresh air every hour for
"each seaman or apprentice, evenly diffused by means approved by a qualified medical
"inspector with an intake and outtake of such size and so arranged as to
"prevent such draught as would in the opinion of the medical inspector be likely to be
"prejudicial to the health of the seamen or apprentices."
The Norwegian Regulations follow the broader lines of the British, except that
favour seems to be given to doors, skylights, and the like as primary means of
ventilation ; whereas a secondary position is given to this by our Merchant Shipping
Act, which recognises such means only as auxiliaries—ventilation to be as effective
as possible independently of doors, &c. But the two countries appear to agree on this
point that each case should be decided on its merits by competent authority.
They further agree in stipulating that deck ventilators must not have their
termination immediately over or near a bunk. The British Regulations add, in view
of the fact that the deck site of the ventilators is often arbitrarily defined by the position
of other gear, &c., that in that case, a trunk way should be fitted below in the cabin or
berth to direct the inflowing air away from the occupants of the bunk.