The theory and practice of hygiene : (Notter and Firth).

Date:
1908
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The theory and practice of hygiene : (Notter and Firth). Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. The original may be consulted at the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh.

    1020/1080 (page 956)
    indifferent heating, leaky decks, leaky side-posts, and condensation of moisture on the bare iron surfaces. The ideal accommodation for seamen is undoubtedly the deck-house, now- met with on the better class of British vessel, but most frequently seen on Danish and Norwegian merchantmen. These deck-houses are placed amidships, and have the sanitary advantages of light, air, accessibility, and possibilities for the greater convenience and comfort of their occupants. Even on small sailing-vessels it is found that the erection of deck-houses does not materially interfere with the working of the ship. In some boats engaged in the cattle trade, the animals occupy the whole fore part of the vessel, while the crew are berthed below in the after part with the officers placed amidships in a deck-house. The legitimate contents of crew spaces are hammocks or bunks, bedding, lookers, chests, 'a table, stove, and lamps. Unfortunately, many crew quarters too frequently contain other articles, which, to say the least, are improper. These articles embrace all the dif?erent materials and implements on board which it is possible to stow away, notably sails, cordage, spare blocks, cans, buckets, brushes, paint, tar, oil, paraffin, wet clothes, boots, and even provisions. These various articles not only pollute the air, but materially occupy space, and that illegally. The principal defects of sailors' quarters may be summed up as insufficient height, light, ventilation, and means of heating ; to these may be added effluvia from cargo or bilge- water, improper storage,~and^pvercrowding. The following Table shows approximately the cubic and floor space per h^ad found in the crew spaces of a variety of vessels registered under the Merchant Shipping Acts :— * Type of Vessel. Tonnage. Situation of Crew Spaces. E or L.t Cubic Space per Head. Floor Space. Per Head. Clear. Sailing-barges on River\ Thames . . . / Ketch rig . Schooner rig Ship rig 3team trawlers 5team coasting colliers . Steam coasting cargo Steam passenger cross- \ channel . . j Steam passenger (coast- ing). Ordinary tramp steamers Steam liners Steam liners Atlantic liners Other liners . 34 to 50 to 75 to 1,200 to 200 to 1,000 to 150 to 50 75 200 2,500 250 2,000 750 500 to 1,300 600 to 1,300 1,000 to 3,000 to 3,000 to 6,000 to 20,000 5,000 to 10,000 4,500 8,000 8,000 Cabin aft. Lower forecastle Lower forecastle House on deck Top-gallant forecastle Top-gallant forecastle Lower forecastle Lower forecastle Lower forecastle Top-gallant forecastle Forecastle and poop . Forecastle and poop . Forecastle Forecastle and poop . 302 290 239 143 178 170 388 118 115 122 100 131 132 115 40 38 34 21 25 20 50 16 15 12 to 15 14 14 17 15 20 24 21 17 15 36 •j- E = Europeans. L = Lascars. The Merchant Shipping Act, 1894, section 210, requires that every seaman shall have 72 cubic feet of air space and 12 square feet of floor area, and that such space shall be entirely free from stores, &c. This, the legal minimum limit, is certainly too small. Fortunately, in the larger vessels there is a tendency rather to underman than to overcrowd ; hence it is not * An interesting summary of Sanitation in the Merchant Service, by W. G. Romeril, which appeared in the Sanitary Record, September 20, 1906, and following issues should be consulted. This Table appeared December 27, 1906.