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14
The general position is the same as reported last year.
The arrangements made with the Port of London Authority whereby the
annual re-registration of water barges is made conditional upon the satisfactory
report of your Officers as to fitness of the barges for the carriage of drinking water,
continued to work smoothly. The number of water barges remained at 12.
IV.—PORT SANITARY REGULATIONS, 1933.
Arrangements for dealing with Declarations of Health remain as
described in my Report for the year 1933 and are working smoothly.
Boarding of Vessels on arrival.—During the year it became necessary
to replace the old " Hygeia," which has served as your Boarding Station at
Gravesend for the past thirteen years. The ceremony of naming the new " Hygeia "
was graciously performed by Miss Joan Easton, daughter of your Chairman, on
23rd November. The following note was printed in the programme of the day's
proceedings :—
THE "HYGEIA."
The Corporation of the City of London was constituted the Sanitary Authority of the Port of London
by an Order of the Local Government Board dated 7th September, 1872.
In 1873 an old naval vessel, the " Rhin " was acquired from the Admiralty and was fitted up as a
floating hospital and moored off Denton. When the Preventive Officer of Customs considered that a
vessel should be medically inspected before being granted pratique, he notified the Medical Officer in charge
of the " Rhin," and took him off in his launch. In 1883 a hospital was built on shore to replace the " Rhin."
The Boarding Medical Officer was then accommodated on the Customs hulk " Dolphin," and went off with
the Customs Officers to visit every ship from foreign. In 1892 Her Majesty's Customs asked that other
accommodation should be provided for the Medical Officer to obviate danger of the communication of
infection to their officers, and in 1893 the Port Sanitary Authority purchased an old paddle tug, the " Robert
Bruce," which was on the point of being broken up, and moored her off Gravesend as the Boarding Station.
The " Robert Bruce " was renamed the " Hygeia," and this name has been given to each of her successors.
The first " Hygeia " lasted till 1910, when the hull of an old coasting collier, the " Eliza Blaxland,"
took her place. She in her turn was replaced in 1922 by the present " Hygeia," which is the hull of a twomasted
schooner built in New Brunswick in 1873, and which, at the age of 62, is no longer fit to stand the
stress and strain of life on the River in Gravesend Reach.
The new " Hygeia " is a double-bowed lighter built of steel in 1918 for the Admiralty. She was lying
in Chatham Dockyard under the uninspiring name of " Yard Craft, 67," and was purchased from the
Admiralty in April this year.
The interior of the hull has been fitted up as a store-room and workshop for the engineers of the launches.
On deck has been built a house providing a sitting-room for the Medical Officer on duty, three cabins for
the Medical Officers and for other members of the staff who must occasionally stay on board to await the
arrival of an infected ship, an office, a galley, a cabin for the shipkeepers and lavatory and water-closet
compartments. When completed, the new " Hygeia " will take up the moorings of the old " Hygeia,"
she will be connected to the shore by telephone, and will be lighted by electricity from the Gravesend
Corporation Supply.
She is much younger and stronger than any of her predecessors, and it should be many years before
she has, from infirmity, to retire from the service of the Port of London Sanitary Authority.
The Boarding Launch " Howard Deighton " has continued to give excellent
service and, apart from the period of her annual overhaul, has been constantly in
commission.
Notification to the Authority of Inward Vessels requiring Special
Attention.—No changes have been made in the arrangements. In my Report of
last year I remarked on the difficulty in regard to light signals at night, and suggested
that the Ministry of Health should endeavour to arrange a fixed light signal which
would indicate definitely that a ship required the attention of the Port Sanitary
Authority. So far as I am aware, nothing has been done in this direction, and
consequently it frequently happens that at night a ship requiring medical inspection
is not dealt with as promptly as she would be if it were possible to pick her out from
other approaching vessels as she comes up the River.