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from time to time, to Trinity House. In addition several of the larger shipping companies using the
Port are supplied, on request, with Declarations of Health which are placed on board their vessels
with other ships' papers.
The instructions on page 4 of the Declaration of Health (applying only to the Port of London)
are as follows:—
The Master of a foreign-going ship approaching a Port in England or Wales from a Foreign
Port, must ascertain the state of health of all persons on board and fill in and sign a Declaration
of Health in the prescribed form, which he must hand to the Customs Officer or to the Port
Medical Officer whichever first boards the ship.
1. If the answer to any of the questions on page 1 is "YES," or if the ship, except in the
case of tankers, has called during the previous six weeks at any of the following Ports:—
Ports in Asia, including Japan, the East Indies and Ceylon, Africa, including Madagascar,
the Canary Islands and Cape Verde Islands, Turkey, Black Sea, Azores, South America,
Central America, Gulf of Mexico, West Indies—
the Master must:—
(1) Send a wireless message to "PORTELTH LONDON," stating the name of his
vessel and the time she is expected to arrive off Gravesend. This message must be sent off
not more than 12 hours, and not less than 4 hours before the arrival of the ship.
In the case of a vessel bound for the Medway, the wireless message must be addressed to
"PORTELTH LONDON," but must be as follows: (Name of Vessel) (Time of arrival)
Sheerness.
Note.—If wireless is not carried, the Port Health Authority must be notified of the arrival of the
ship as soon as possible.
(2) Radio Messages.
(a) Arrangements for sending permission by radio for ships to enter the district. (Regulation
13).
No such arrangement exists in the Port of London.
(b) Arrangements for receiving messages by radio from ships and for acting thereon
(Regulation 14 (1) (a) and (2).
Arrangements are in free by which the General Post Office telephone direct to the Medical
Officer on duty on the "Hygeia" all messages received by the North Foreland Radio Station, from
vessels in accordance with the instructions on the Declaration of Health.
Occasionally a vessel voluntarily sends a full Quarantine message in code, which is deciphered
by the Medical Officer from Volume II (Radio) of the International Code of Signals.
(3) Notifications otherwise than by Radio (Regulation 14 (1) (b)).
Ships requiring medical attention are required to fly the flag signal 'LIM' during the day and
to flash 'Q' on their morse lamp by night when approaching Gravesend, both signals meaning
"Medical Officer required."
Light signals to be used by ships at night have been amended under the new Public Health (Ships)
Regulations and arrangements have been under discussion for some time past to enable the red over
white lights carried at the masthead or forepeak to be adopted in the Port of London.
This has given rise to some difficulty owing to the fact that the red light is already in use, either
singly or combined with the white, by petroleum vessels and also by the cross-river ferries. The
matter is further complicated by the fact that the white signal is used to call the Custom's launch on
the approach of a vessel in the Gravesend Reach.
Consequently the flashing of "Q" by morse lamp at night still continues but a number of
masters are flying the red over white signal prescribed in the 1952 Regulations and some confusion
and possible danger to navigation is resulting.
It is to be hoped that the negotiations for the use of the red over white signal calling the PortMedical
Officer will shortly be concluded satisfactorily.
(4) Mooring Stations (Regulations 22 to 30).
During 1947 and after correspondence with the Port of London Authority and the Waterguard
Superintendent of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise, new Mooring Stations were adopted to replace
those that had been destroyed by enemy action during the war.
They are as follows:—