FORECASTLE CONDITIONS

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2260, 21 September 1914, Page 7

FORECASTLE CONDITIONS

SOME PLAIN SPEAKING. '. The living conditions of seamen in the British Mercantile Marine were adversely criticised at the meeting of Port Sanitary Authorities attached to the Sanitary Congress at. Blackpool. Dr. Collingridge, of Pombury s in his presidential address to the section, advocated compulsory submission of all plans of the inhabited quarters of new vessels for tho approval of the Port .Sanitary Authority. The mercantile marine,' he declared, had long been a blot on our fair name. Only a few enlightened owners had realised their duty and their interest in endeavouring to improve the condition of seamen.\ Tho Bailor was housed in a dark, damp, overcrowded, ill-ventilated forecastle, his food was of the worst, description, and the cooking was ■usually beyond description. Dr. Herbert Williams, medical officer of the Port of London, contrasted the accommodation on shore which complied with the lowest standard of sanitary requirement with that on shipboard. What would be said if any sanitary authority ashore permitted to be inhabited a house of two rooms, built of imporvious materials, each lighted by three immovable windows 7in. square, and each inhabited by eight men, with perhaps 88 cubic feet and 14 square feot of free space available for each man? Each spaco was perhaps fitted with one ventilator, which, as it was near the blink, was stopped up, and the room was heated by a cheap 6tqve, which was usually broken, permitting the fumes to pass into the quaitors. "The conditions under which seamen live en many vessels," said Dr. Williams, "can only be compared with those under which the cave-dwellers lived in prehistoric times." This country was dependent for its supply largely \ipon our ' mercantile marine, and for a largo proportion of its wealth to tho exportation of manufactured goods to other countries. It would therefore only bo expected that men engaged in such important work in connection with 'the welfaro of this country should receive more attention at the hands of tho Legislature, if not at the hands of their employers.