View report page

Any contaminated equipment should not be used until it has been returned to the store
for suitable cleansing.
4. Number and sanitary condition of water boats and powers of control by the Authority
There were thirteen water boats working in the Port during the year. Water boats are
registered annually by the Port of London Authority and such registration is made conditional
upon the report of the Medical Officer of Health of the Port as to the fitness of the craft for the
carriage of drinking water as also upon the purity of the water thus carried. To this end sampling
is carried out from time to time.
SECTION VI - PUBLIC HEALTH (SHIPS) REGULATIONS, 1952
1. List of Infected Areas (Regulation 6) - Arrangements for the preparation and amendment of
the list, the form of list, the persons to whom it is supplied and the procedure for supplying
it to those persons
Regulation 6 of the Public Health (Ships) Regulations, 1952, requires that "the medical
officer of health shall from time to time prepare and keep up to date a list of ports and other
areas which are infected or believed to be infected with quarantinable disease or which may
serve other places or areas so infected or believed to be infected" and, further, that copies of
every such list and any amendment thereof shall be supplied to the Pilots and Customs Officers
employed in the district.
To attempt to supply the Pilots and Customs Officers with a weekly list of such ports and
areas based on the Weekly Record of Quarantinable Diseases issued by the World Health Organisation
would lead to chaos and to much more delay and inconvenience to shipping than the
system of inspecting, as a routine, ships from any part of the World in which dangerous infectious
diseases are endemic or, from time to time, epidemic. Consequently, for convenience of
working, the infected area is taken to include any port in all Asia, Africa, South America or
Central America (excluding transit through the Panama Canal). In the event of quarantinable
disease occurring outside this area, the Pilots and Customs Officers would at once be notified.
Ships bound for London coming up the English Channel take on a Pilot off Dungeness, those
coming across the North Sea take on a Pilot at the Sunk Lightship, 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 ships they board and accordingly supplies of the Declaration of
Health are sent as required to the Pilotage Offices at Dover and Harwich. In addition, several of
the larger shipping companies using the port are supplied, on request, with blank Declarations
of Health which are placed on board their vessels with other ship's papers.
The instructions on page 4 of the Declaration of Health (applying only to the Port of London)
are as follows:—
INSTRUCTIONS
I. THE MASTER of a ship approaching LONDON from a Foreign Port MUST
(1) Ascertain the health of all persons on board.
(2) Complete and sign this Maritime Declaration of Health
(3) Hand this Declaration to the Customs Officer or Port Medical Officer,
whoever first visits the ship.
II. If the answer to any question on page one is 'YES', or - EXCEPT IN THE CASE
OF TANKERS -
If during the last FOUR WEEKS the ship has called at ANY PORT in all ASIA,
AFRICA, SOUTH AMERICA OR CENTRAL AMERICA (excluding transit
through the Panama Canal)—
THE MASTER MUST-
(1) Send a wireless message to 'PORTELTH' LONDON stating:-
NAME OF SHIP
EXPECTED TIME OF ARRIVAL AT GRAVESEND
NUMBERS, AGES and SEX of ALL CASES of INFECTIOUS DISEASE
This message to be sent 4 to 12 hours before the expected time of
arrival at Gravesend.
(2) SIGNAL-From MUCKING No. 5 BUOY until PRATIQUE is GRANTED.
BY DAY-FLY the Flag Signal L I M
BY NIGHT- Show a RED Light over a WHITE Light
11