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31
Provided the conditions of life in ships are reasonably good, there is an ample
supply of men of the right type to meet all the requirements of the shipping industry,
and there should be no need to engage men who are devoid of any sense of personal
responsibility in regard to the comfort and cleanliness of their quarters or who are
utterly irresponsive to their environment. A ship gets the type of crew she deserves.
At the end of 1932, the Board of Trade issued a report by Dr. P. G. Edge, of the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, entitled "Statistics relating to
Mortality in the Mercantile Marine." Your Medical Officer summarised this report for
the February, 1933, number of the Bulletin of Hygiene, and by courtesy of the Director
of the Bureau of Hygiene and Tropical Diseases the summary is reprinted below:—
The Board of Trade, recognising the lack of reliable statistics on which could be
based comparisons between the health of seamen and of persons engaged in shore
occupations, conclusions as to improvement or deterioration in the health of merchant
seamen as a class or estimates as to the extent to which they are affected by certain
diseases, referred the question to the Permanent Consultative Committee on Official
Statistics. This Committee expressed the opinion that owing to the lack of data a
statistical report on the health of the mercantile marine was impracticable and that
a periodical investigation into occupational mortality was the only effective method
of measuring statistically the effect of this occupation on health. In 1929 the Joint
Advisory Committee of the Board of Trade and Ministry of Health recommended that
such an enquiry should be made, and the work was entrusted to Dr. Edge.
The author observes that enquiries into occupational hazards and mortality are
always difficult, but are specially so in regard to the Mercantile Marine. Since sea life
still demands a high degree of physical fitness a medical examination of men on
engagement is usual, but the standard varies greatly and the examination is often
perfunctory. Discontinuity of service is another difficulty. Between voyages there
are often long periods of unemployment and the sailor may take up temporary or
permanent work ashore. Further, he has exceptional temptations to acquire harmful
habits tending to shorten life and finally he, unlike the worker on shore, is exposed to
at least some of the risks of his occupation for the whole 24 hours of every day
he is at sea.
The investigator was asked to find the mortality rate per 1,000 seamen in a given
year; the principal causes of death; whether there was any excess mortality at
particular ages or in particular ratings and to compare the mortality rates in the
Merchant Service with those in shore occupations. To answer these questions it is
necessary to have an estimate of the population at risk and a complete list of deaths
showing in each case the cause of death, the age at death and the rating of the
decedents. Neither of these is easily obtained.
The Board of Trade's Annual Census of Seamen records only those actually in
employment on 31st March each year. Moreover, the Board of Trade definition of
seaman does not include all men of the seafaring community, thus pilots and the
crews of tugs, fishing vessels, &c., are excluded whilst the deck-steward of
a cross-Channel boat would be included.
It is obvious that the figure 127,518 British seamen in the Annual Census of
Seamen taken on 31st March, 1930, must be an under-estimate of the population at
risk, and since this forms the denominator in calculations of mortality the estimates
resulting must be too high. The most satisfactory figure would be the number of
seamen ashore on the night of the Decennial Census plus the number in crews at sea
on the same night. But since the investigation commenced in September, 1930, the
figures of the General Census of 1931 were not available in time for the report. The
author is, however, of the opinion that the figure of 197,360 British seamen calculated
on this basis from the 1921 Census might fairly be applied to the year 1930, since in
view of the unparalleled depression in the shipping industry it is highly improbable
that there has been any significant increase in the population of seamen.
Deaths of seamen in ships at sea or in ports abroad must be reported to and
recorded by the Registrar-General of Shipping and Seamen, deaths of British subjects
abroad must be recorded by Consular officers, deaths at home in the United Kingdom