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near Harwich. The Elder Brethren of Trinity House have kindly agreed that Pilots
should hand copies of the Declaration of Health to the Masters of the ships they
board and accordingly supplies of the Declaration of Health are sent, from time to
time j to Trinity House® The Elder Brethren have, however, stipulated that Pilots
should not be held responsible for any failure on the part of Masters to comply
with the instructions of the Port Health Authority. Pilots have, however,
co-operated willingly and conscientiously and consequently the arrangements are
working very satisfactorily.
In this manner delay in providing the Master with a Declaration of Health
form to be filled up before arrival at Gravesend, is avoided. This is very
important since there are occasions when even a few minutes delay may result in a
ship missing the slack -water at high tide or low tide, essential for docking.
Free pratique is granted to ships arriving at port in the United Kingdom
from foreign, not by the Port Medical Officer but by the Officers of His Majesty's
Customs® Consequently -when a ship arrives the Customs Officer examines the
Declaration of Health and if all the answers to the six questions put to the Master
in the Declaration are in the negative and the ship has not called within the last
six -weeks at ports in certain regions listed in the Declaration of Health, the
Customs Officer automatically grants the ship free pratique and the Medical Officer
on duty is not called upon to board the ship®
If, however, these conditions are not fulfilled^ the Customs Officer
withholds pratique and instructs the Master to send the signal calling for the
Boarding Medical Officer and it then rests with the Boarding Medical Officer to
advise the Customs whether pratique should or should not be granted.
2. Boarding of vessels on arrival -
The Port Health Authority maintain at Gravesend a hulk, the "Hygeia" on
which the Boarding Medical Officers live during their tour of duty. The Boarding
Launch "Howard Deighton" which has an ambulance room on deck, lies alongside the
"Hygeia".
There are three Boarding Medical Officers and three crews for the launch,
each having 24 hours afloat and 48 hours ashore® Ships are boarded at any time
of the day or night as soon as they arrive off Gravesend. The "Hygeia" is
connected by an underwater cable to the telephone ashore and in accordance with the
requirements set out in the Declaration of Health, wireless messages sent from an
incoming vessel are picked up by the North Foreland Radio Station and transmitted
by land cable to the "Hygeia".
The Customs also maintain a launch constantly on duty in this Reach of
the River and it is here also that the deep sea pilot hands over to the River pilot.
Thus all three services are in close touch with one another.
When the boarding launch is undergoing overhaul or is, by any other reason
temporarily out of commission, the Medical Officer boards from the Customs launch,
by courtesy of His Majesty's Customs®
The m.l. "Alfred Roach" which is based at Gravesend and is at the disposal of
the Sanitary Inspector in the Lower River district is constructed so that the saloon
can be rapidly converted into a sick-bay capable of carrying three stretcher cases
and has a cockpit with a sufficiently large open space to receive a stretcher and
deep enough to protect the occupants from inclement weather® The launch is capable
of accommodating eight sitting cases and would be used for transferring cases to
hospital should the "Howard Deighton" be out of commission®
3. Notifications to the Authority of inward vessels requiring medical attention =
Arrangements are in force by which the General Post Office telephone direct
to the Medical Officer on duty on the "Tlygeia" all messages received by the North
Foreland Radio Station from vessels in accordance with the instructions on the
Declaration of Health® There is always a Medical Officer on duty and a launch
available for removing infectious cases to hospital®
Occasionally a vessel voluntarily send a full Quarantine message in code.
which is deciphered by the Medical Officer from Volume II (Radio) of the International
Code of Signals, but usually the message received from the vessel is that required
in the Declaration of Health, namely, the name of the vessel and the time she is
expected to arrive off Gravesend, with information of any infectious disease on
board, this message being sent off not more than 12 hours and not less than 4 hours
before the arrival of the vessel.
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