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18
Particulars of any standing Exemptions from the provisions of Article 14
All ships which are required to be visited on arrival by the Port Medical Officer
are dealt with in the Boarding Station at Gravesend. Any found to be "infected"
or "suspected" can be sent to the mooring station by the Boarding Medical Officer
himself. If there are on board cases of the minor infectious diseases, it would be
no advantage to anyone to let ships proceed to their berths before being medically
inspected because they can be cleared promptly at Gravesend, whereas it might take
several hours to get a Medical Officer to them in the docks, at wharves or at moorings
in the River. No standing exemptions have therefore been made in regard to ships
proceeding above Gravesend. But in the case of ships bound for Thameshaven
and the oil wharves at the Holehaven end of Canvey Island, the Chapman Anchorage,
Southend, Leigh, Sheerness, Ridham Dock, Rochester and Strood, special arrangements
have been made and are set out in Column 5 of the above-mentioned Table.
Experience of 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.
I and
members of my family are proceeding to the following address
Name and forthwith :
Full Address House
in No. or Name of House
Block Letters. Street
Postal District
County
Signature