View report page

29
verminous when brought aboard. Food cupboards are provided, but are small,
unventilated, and inadequate. The forecastles are dark, dirty, untidy and, in most
cases, due to the absence of a messroom, littered with food and dirty utensils.
The W.C. is frequently foul and choked and, if of the old trough type, offensive
and insanitary.
In spite of these difficulties, it should be a comparatively easy matter to bring
vessels of this type to a desirable standard if daily routine inspection was carried out
in the same manner as in first-class shipping companies. Ample opportunity is
afforded for painting and cleansing the quarters on the long passages between ports,
as the men can easily be accommodated under awnings in tropical weather.
Unfortunately, this is far from being the case at present, and it is most exceptional to
find a vessel where the master is personally interested in the welfare and cleanliness
of his crew. There is no excuse whatsoever for vessels of this type to arrive in home
waters with their crew accommodation in anything but a reasonable state of cleanliness
It is amazing to find that it is only under pressure brought to bear by Port Sanitary
Authorities that such accommodation is made habitable, when all that is required is a
standing order from the owners to their shipmasters rigidly enforcing the responsibility
of keeping the crew's accommodation up to a definite standard of cleanliness.
To quote a very recent case of a vessel which arrived from the River Plate.
Upon inspection the most appalling conditions were found. The forecastle was
badly infested with vermin, some of the men had no proper bunks, and had made
their own from pieces of timber. The sides of the forecastle were damp, not cork
dusted, very rusty, badly in need of paint, and dirty, and the deckhead was leaking
badly through defective caulking. In addition to this, no electric light was provided
for the men, though fitted on the ship. The master and chief officer had not inspected
these quarters on the homeward voyage, or many of these hardships could have been
remedied. A ship's carpenter was carried who could have repaired the defective
caulking. The forecastle could have been fumigated, cleansed, painted, and efficient
bunks made had a minimum of interest been taken by the master of this vessel.
Yet one found the vessel's plates and decks chipped and painted, and many other
routine works had been and were being done.
Once again the remedy lies in compulsory systematic supervision of crew accommodation
in the case of vessels already engaged in their various trades. With regard
to future vessels, more attention should be paid to detail. A mess-room apart from
the sleeping quarters, steel clothes lockers, ventilated food cupboards, adequate lighting,
both natural and artificial, efficient heating arrangements, a place for the men to wash,
and a W.C. of a modern type should be regarded as a minimum. A routine inspection
of the men's bedding when they join the ship should also be enforced.
N.B.—A record of vessels typical of the types mentioned has been kept, with the
dates of inspection, to corroborate the statements set out in this report.
Mr. J. S. Beattie, your Sanitary Inspector on the Lower River District, has
submitted the following short reports on the need for clothes lockers in crew's
quarters, and for special food lockers in coasting vessels:—
Crews' Clothes Lockers.
(By J. S. Beattie, Sanitary Inspector.)
The absence of accommodation for clothing is one of the causes of unhygienic
conditions in crews' quarters.
On entering any forecastle the first thing that meets the eye is the assortment of
garments distributed about the place, from bulkhead to after corner.
Even where a definite attempt at orderliness is evident, or when supervision is
the rule of the company, the total lack of clothes lockers defeats the efforts of the
crew to keep their quarters clean and tidy, and disheartened, they give up the struggle.
Garments hung up for any length of time are a potential breeding ground for
vermin and are invariably attacked during the early stages of infestation. Shore