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The following is a copy of a further letter from the owners:—
" 11th June, 1914.
"Dear Sir,
"s.s. 'Katori Maru.'
"We beg to acknowledge receipt of your letter of the 9th instant, copy
of which we are sending to the Master, the steamer having left for Japan.
We trust the Port Sanitary Committee will not take too serious a view of the
incident. We might urge in extenuation that the Master's reply that he had
had no sickness on the voyage was literally true, as the voyage in question was
only from Antwerp, and the man was thought to have recovered from his
'cold' before departure of the steamer from Antwerp. Meanwhile, we are
emphasising to our captains the necessity of faithfully reporting all suspected
cases of sickness, and we trust that you will not be troubled by any such
future occurrences.
"Yours faithfully,
"..........................................."
The s.s. "Grainton," of Newcastle, 129,766, arrived on the 19th September, 1914,
from Galveston, and seven cases of this disease were landed at Denton Hospital.
The vessel was at Galveston August 19th-27th, where water was taken on board
from a stand pipe on the quay.
The men state, however, that there was a water barrel on the quay, the contents
of which was used for drinking purposes. This was filled from time to time, and
negroes put blocks of ice in it.
Of the men who subsequently developed Enteric Fever all except one partook
freely of this water over a period of eight days. Six cases occurred between
September 1st and 12th, and one on September 18th. The latter patient was
probably infected from the two earliest cases, who were attended to by him when they
became ill.
Of the seven cases, six made a good recovery and one died.
On the 21st October, 1914, I received a notification that two men had been
admitted to the Seamen's Hospital, Greenwich, from the s.s. "F. A. Tamplin," on the
13th September, and that the disease had been diagnosed as typhoid fever. This vessel
arrived on the 11th September, and proceeded to Thames Haven, and received pratique
from H.M. Customs, the Master stating that there had been no illness on board. It is
obvious that the two men in question must have been ill on arrival of the vessel at
Thames Haven, and I therefore communicated with the Master asking for an explanation.
The following is a copy of a letter sent by the Master to his owners, dated
11th December, 1914 :—
"Regarding the two enteric fever cases which the Medical Officer of
Health mentioned, the two men had been ill on the passage, but not of such a
nature as to be reported as illnesses. I treated them to the best of my ability,
and they had recovered and were on deck on arrival in London. These two
men it appears ate something at Thames Haven, and, as all our food had to be
cooked on shore, I cannot be responsible for water or anything the men got hold
of, but the fact remained that during the time of my arrival in Thames Haven
and Woolwich Buoys, these two men complained of feeling ill, and on arrival at
Woolwich Buoys I immediately called the Doctor down to examine them ; he