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him to carry out other important duties in this section. Such a launch would need
to be sturdily built because of the nature of the work, but she would never be required
to take over boarding duties at Gravesend, and therefore need not be more than
about 30 feet long, nor have a speed of more than about 9 or 10 knots.
The list of scheduled ports on page 4 of the Declaration of Health covers, broadly
speaking, the whole of Asia, Africa, South and Central America and the Eastern
Mediterranean. To attempt to supply to Pilots and Customs Officers a weekly list of
infected ports based on the Record of Infectious Diseases in Ports, &c., at Home and
Abroad, issued weekly by the Ministry of Health, would lead to chaos and to much
more delay and inconvenience to shipping than the system of inspecting, as a routine,
ships from any part of the world in which dangerous infectious diseases are endemic or,
from time to time, epidemic. I still hope that some day the routine boarding of ships
from infected ports will be discontinued and that we shall be able to substitute the
boarding not only of ships on which infectious or doubtful sickness or deaths have
occurred during the voyage, but also of all those which have on board at the time of
arrival any cases of sickness of any sort whatever, however trivial such cases may
appear to be. It might be possible to extend some concessions to ships carrying
surgeons who fully comprehend the requirements of Port Sanitary Authorities and
who could be relied upon to notify any case of sickness which might conceivably be
of an infectious nature. But I am of the opinion that the Master of a ship should not
be required to carry the responsibility of diagnosis in any case of illness once his ship
is within a Port Sanitary district.
When the Port Medical Officer sees a case of sickness his first thought is “May this
be a case of infectious disease?" and only when he is confident that it is non-infectious
is he prepared to allow the patient to proceed. Neither the Master nor the Surgeon
approach the question of diagnosis from this angle, and therefore they will, from time
to time, miss infectious cases which the Port Medical Officer would at least remove to
hospital for observation.
Many cases of Typhoid Fever, some of Small-pox and a few of Plague have been
landed in this country as Influenza, a diagnosis which should always be regarded with
suspicion by every Port Medical Officer.
Notifications to the Authority of inward Vessels requiring special attention.
By arrangement with the General Post Office, wireless messages sent in accordance
with the instructions on the Declaration of Health are received by the North Foreland
Radio Station and telephoned direct to the Medical Officer on duty on the " Hygeia."
Ships have not, up to the present time, been required to send the standard Quarantine
Message prescribed in the Second Schedule to the Regulations. There is always a
Medical Officer on duty, a launch available and a hospital ready for the reception of
cases, so that all that is absolutely necessary in the Port of London is advance
notification of the name of the ship and the time she is expected to arrive on the
boarding station. A number of ships voluntarily send the full Quarantine Message in
code, which is deciphered by the Medical Officer from Volume II. (Radio) of the
International Code of Signals and the Liste Alphabetique des Indicatifs D'Appel des
Stations Fixes, Terrestres et Mobiles. The practice of sending messages through
Agents has been discouraged, because they were frequently not forwarded promptly
during the night or at week-ends.
Practically all messages are now received direct from ships, but when some
serious infectious sickness has occurred on board, Shipping Companies and Agents
usually communicate the news as soon as they receive it, and ask if there are any
special instructions which they can wireless to the ship concerned.
Since the Regulations came into force on 1st May, 1933, one thousand six hundred
and twenty vessels requiring inspection have arrived. Of these, 75 failed to send
wireless messages. In 12 cases the pilot omitted to supply the Master with a Declaration
of Health form; in 50 cases the Master failed to carry out the instructions, and
in 13 cases the ships were not fitted with wireless transmitting apparatus.
The number of instances of failure to comply with the Regulations is, however,
diminishing month by month.