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Sheerness.—(1) Oil Tankers.—These may be dealt with in just the same way as
"oil tankers" at Thameshaven, except that in case of necessity communications
should be sent to the Port Sanitary Authority's Boarding Medical Officer at Sheerness
instead of to the "Hygeia."
(2) All other ships from "foreign," whether remaining in the Port of London or
bound for Rochester.—
If the vessel has called at an infected port, the Port Sanitary Authority's
Boarding Medical Officer at Sheerness should be informed and the vessel should
be detained in the Customs Boarding Station pending his arrival, even if the
answers to all the questions on page 1 of the Declaration of Health are "No."
If the vessel has not called at an infected port but the answer to any of the
questions on page 1 of the Declaration of Health is "Yes," the Boarding Officer at
Sheerness should be informed and the vessel should be detained in the Customs
Boarding Station until visited by him, except that if only questions 4 and 6 are
answered in the affirmative the vessel may proceed to her berth to be dealt with there
by the Medical Officer concerned, i.e., either the Port of London Sanitary Authority's
Boarding Medical Officer at Sheerness or the Medical Officer of Health of Rochester,
who should be informed accordingly.
Experience or<' working Article 16.
(1) As ships are cleared in the River immediately on arrival, no difficulty has
been experienced in preventing the embarkation or disembarkation of unauthorised
persons.
(2) When a Ship arrives which has on board a case of one of the major infectious
diseases or on which such a case has died or has been landed abroad within the
incubation period of the particular disease, it is the practice to regard every person
on board as a contact and accordingly to arrange for his observation or surveillance.
Observation is only applied to members of the crew who are standing by the ship
in port.
Those who are intending to leave the ship must give their names and addresses
before leaving. Experience has shown that it is useless to take the address from the
passenger manifest and the crew's articles. Passengers frequently give a business
address or a destination to which they will not be proceeding for several days.
A member of the crew will frequently give the address of his next of kin or of some
person who is to be informed if he becomes a casualty. Everyone on board must,
therefore, be seen individually and asked the address to which he is proceeding
immediately on disembarkation. This interrogation is conveniently made at the time
of medical inspection, and when there are a large number of passengers one or two
clerks accompany the Medical Officers to the ship and assist in this work. The
introduction of a double post card, one half of which is for the notification of the
immediate address and the other half for the notification of any change of address,
has proved very successful in expediting the clearing of ships and the transmission
of the necessary information to the Medical Officers of Health of the districts of
destination and in making passengers realise their obligations under the Regulations.
The two halves of the post card are as under:—
PORT SANITARY REGULATIONS, 1933.
Penalty for Breach of Regulations, £100.
In accordance with the above Regulations you are permitted to disembark on
the following conditions:—
1. That you give to the Medical Officer of Health of the Port of London the
precise address to which you are proceeding immediately on landing.
2. That if you change your address at any time within 14 days of disembarkation
you shall notify forthwith your new address to the Medical Officer of Health
of the Port of London on the attached card.
Name and Full Address in Block Letters. I and
members of my family are proceeding to the following address
forthwith:—
No. or Name of House
Street
Postal District
County
Signature