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distribution of the rash and no prodromal signs.
7. The Ship's Surgeon promptly isolated Mr® A. and his wife in the ship's Isolation
Hospital and there they remained until the end of the voyage®
8. The ship, on arrival in the English Channel was delayed some hours by fog and
did not arrive in the Gravesend Reach of the River until 2.0 p.m., on Saturday,
2nd April. Mr. A. died at 11.30 p.m, on Friday, 1st April®
9. On the 31st March, Dro Corbett, the Medical Superintendent of the P. & 0. Co,
informed me by telephone that he had received a signal from the Surgeon of the
"Mooltan" as follows
"Have serious case diagnosed chickenpox man aged 69 years. Wife also
isolated. Shall require isolation ambulance and isolation hospital
accommodation. Also female passenger aged 65 acute pneumonia. Shall
require hospital accommodation. Please advise Port Health Authority".
10. In view of the Ship Surgeon's statement that it was a "serious case diagnosed
chickenpox", I suggested to Dr. Corbett that he should send a signal to the ship
asking if the Surgeon was sure that it was a case of chickenpox, also for
information on the vaccinal state of the case, whether he had gone ashore during
the voyage and whether any precautionary measures, such as vaccination of possible
contacts, had been taken.
11. The Ship's Surgeon replied by signal received by Dr. Corbett on the 31st March
to the effect that the passenger was unvaccinated, had been ashore at Colombo and
Bombay and that the Surgeon could not definitely exclude variola. He was
considering vaccination and would require 1,000 doses on arrival. Incidentally he
was carrying 600 doses on board.
The signal having raised my suspicions I got into touch with Dr. Boul, the
Medical Officer of Health of the Thurrock Urban District Council and one of the
Ministry's Smallpox Consultants, and asked him if he would accompany Dr.
Willoughby when he boarded the ship, to make sure that the diagnosis was correct.
12. Dr. Boul very kindly agreed to do this and on Saturday, 2nd April, the ship
was boarded while in the Gravesend Reach by Dr® Boul and Dr. Willoughby who
inspected the cadaver. Both had no hesitation in diagnosing the case as one of
smallpox.
13. I had already discussed with Dr. Willoughby the measures he might take in the
event of the case being one of smallpox and I had informed him that, in principle,
I saw no reason for isolating the ship in mid-stream longer than was necessary to
carry out the vaccination of the crew and passengers and to obtain their names and
addresses.
14. I gave Dr. Willoughby authority to send into Denton Isolation Hospital anybody
whom he considered to be a very close contact with the case and who refused
vaccination, but otherwise to secure the vaccination of as many as possible and to
release them under 'surveillance'.
15. Dr® Willoughby, in agreement with Dr® Boul, decided that there was no reason
why the ship should not tie up at the Tilbury Landing Stage, under strict isolation,
allowing none but authorised persons on board, since the disembarkation of the
large number of passengers involved would be a matter of great difficulty if the
ship was lying in mid-stream. The number of passengers and crew in the ship was
as follows
CREW - PASSENGERS -
White 172 +British 941 (Tourist Class)
Coloured 269 = 441 Alien 12 - 953,
+ Includes 4 D.B.S.
Total personnel - 1,394.
16. Actually only six persons were admitted on board while the ship lay at the
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