UNCLEAN TROOPSHIP.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 December 1918, Page 1

UNCLEAN TROOPSHIP.

INFLUENZA ON BARAMBA. LONDON November 22. The Australian naval authorities am instituting an enquiry into the conditions aboard the troopship Baramba which has arrived in Loncfn. The vessel carried over 1000 men from Victoria and South Australia the majority being infantrymen; also a railway section and about 100 sailors for the Australian Navy.

Over-crowding gave rise to serious complaints, the dock accommodation being such that the men below were only able at short periods to exercise and play games on deck in instalments, lho bath accommodation was deficient, .and there was frequent shortage of washing water. Influenza, broke out after the vessel left Cape Town. The epidemic swepv the entire ship, 800 being sick at one time. The hospital accommodation os limited and the patients were lying everywhere on the Hecks and on tfco hatches. During the six days between Cape Town and Sierra Leone, the outbreak was at its height. Twenty-five deaths occurred, six in one day. The chaplain field daily funerals. In,, medical supplies were inadequate and were quickly exhausted. The two doctors worked manfully. Many men m the medical section became ill, uul volunteers attended to the sick. The conditions were speedily ameliorated after the Baramba’s arrival at Sierra Leone, where she remained a week awaiting the escort. Fresh supplies,of drugs were obtained and within two days most of the sufferers were convalescent.

The Baramba continued her voyage, with a large convoy, under the escort the cruiser-destroyer Britannia. She was picked up by a flotilla of destroyers in the Bay of Biscay, whereupon the Britannia departed for Gibraltar and was torpedoed and sunk an hour later. Men aboard the Bnramba state that th o vessel was in a filthy condition before she left Australia. The plankingcovering the iron decks was so badly laid that the interstices filled with dirt, and it was impossible to clean the : l'ip Meat was cut up on deck. When some of the planking was lifted a seething mass of maggots was fund. The ves sel was quite unsuitable to sleep 806 men in her single ’tween decks. The following official naval statement is supplier:—“The actual number --ar ried in the. Baramba on this voyage was 997. The vessel has previously carried 1258 without complaint and is one i.f the. best troopships.in the service.”