View report page

34
The principal points on which Mr. Beattie comments in coasting vessels are:—
1. Unhygienic accommodation.
2. Inadequate and unsatisfactory provision for the storage of food.
3. Individual messing and cooking.
Unhygienic Accommodation.
In small coasting vessels the crew accommodation is under the forecastle head,
and consists of two triangular spaces containing bunks for a certified number of
seamen, a table, forms, a small Board of Trade food locker for each man and a coal
bogie stove. Forward of the sailors' forecastle is a bow locker for ship's ropes and
gear. Whatever is needed from this store must be dragged through the forecastle.
On deck at the break of the forecastle is the crew's water closet, usually of the
insanitary trough type, flushed by a bucket from overside. In the small ship there
are no messrooms, no wash-place, no clothes lockers, no drying rooms, no oilskin
lockers. The seaman hangs his working clothes on the bulkhead, his oilskins on
the wooden partition, his shore suit on a spare bunk or on his bunk rail, his washing
on a line by the bogie stove to dry. The coal bogie stove is responsible for most of
the dirt in the quarters throughout the winter months. Its position is governed
by the space allotted to the funnel flange on the forecastle head. There is rarely
a proper or adequate box for the coal, which becomes scattered and trodden all over
the place.
In this cramped compartment the seamen sleep, eat, wash, bath, and in wet
weather do their laundry and take such recreation as their hours of duty permit.
Inadequate and Unsatisfactory Provision for the Storage of Food.
Vessels on the coast have insufficient storage for food. The only fitting when
the ship is built is a Board of Trade locker for each man. Its size is about that of
a four-gallon petrol tin. Its position depends on the space left on the bulkhead
and it is useless when placed too near the bogie stove or at the ship's side. No locker
is fit for the storage of meat and butter and few are even suitable for bread.
Consequently food is kept in all sorts of places, in boxes in alleyways, in wash-places,
under bunks, in spare bunks, in lifeboats and has even been found in water-closet
compartments.
Individual Messing and Cooking.
The crews of coasters usually buy their own food and store it in the unsatisfactory
conditions to which reference has been made above. This system is really
uneconomical and unsatisfactory for the men do not spend their money to the best
advantage and do not obtain an adequate diet. Cheapness, ease of storage and the
minimum of trouble in preparation are their principal considerations. Further,
there is often no cook, or at most an unskilled cook, and galleys are often small,
inconvenient and dirty. In 128 vessels on which the special enquiry was made
30 had no cook; six had an ordinary seaman cook (usually an inexperienced boy)
for officers only, eight a similar cook for all hands; 30 had an A.B. cook (usually
with no special training) for officers only and 13 a similar cook for all hands; 19 had
a steward for officers only and 22 had a steward and a messroom steward. Of the 546
officers interrogated 534 were in favour of the employment of an experienced cook for
all hands and 12 gave only a qualified approval; of 765 men, 730 were in favour of an
experienced cook and 35 preferred to cook for themselves. But in the matter of rationing
themselves it appeared that there was not the same desire for a change because the men
feared that it would be likely to involve a deduction from their wages of more than
they themselves spent on food and that they would not get the quality or quantity
to which they were entitled. Further, they liked to be free to indulge their individual
preferences Avithin the limits necessarily imposed by their small means and the lack
of facilities for storage and cooking.