View report page

WATER SUPPLY.
1 .. Some interesting points emerge from an investigation of the supply of drinkin
water in the ship.
Water is ptimped from the shore or from water harges lying alongside the ship
through two main intakes, one on the port side amidships just abaft the main
galley and one on the port side astern, situated in the lascar quarters and openi
into the ships side through a port-hole.
These intakes are about 6" diameter and the method of delivering the water is
to hoist a hose up the ship's side either from the quay or from the water barge,
to pass a length of it into the intake pipe and then to pump the water up.
The hoses or at least the outsides of them are, of course, liable to consider
able contamination on the quayside or on the deck of the water barge and some of
the contamination must inevitably be introduced into the water intake when the
hose is inserted.
Water was taken on board at all the ports on the homeward voyage, that is, i
Australia, at Colombo, Bombay Aden, Port Said and Marseilles.
It is the practice in the P. & 0. Company, whatever the purity of the water
taken on and its chlorine content, to chlorinate the water in the tanks at the
time of filling to an amount equivalent to 0.5 parts of chlorine per million.
12. Water taken in at Bombay on this voyage was not chlorinated for some reason
which is not clear but apparently rested on some specific instruction having its
origin in Bombay itself.
The amount of water taken on in Bombay on the voyage home was as follows
Into No. 7 Tank (which contained 15 tons of water
left over from the Colombo supply) 91 tons from a
stand pipe and 383 tons from four P. & 0. Water Barges.
A further 150 tons of mixed water from stand pipe and
barges - the amounts from each are not known - were
taken into the Tunnel Tank.
To repeat, the water taken into No. 7 Tank and the Tunnel Tank was not
chlorinated.
The water in No. 7 Tank was used immediately while the ship was lying in
Bombay on the 24th November and also on the following day, by which time the tank
was empty.
The water in the Tunnel Tank was used on the 3rd and on the 4th December,
when the ship arrived at Port Said. Both tanks were topped up with Port Said
water but no further use was made of the water in these tanks until the 8th and
9th December when the Tunnel Tank water was again used.
The Tunnel Tank was topped up again at Marseilles on the 9th December but
was not used at any time before the ship arrived in London on the 15th December.
13. Reference to the annexed graph will show the incidence of cases in relation
to the use of the Bombay water.
(20)