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heard to declare that if they fed their men on toasted angels and provided them with free quarters in the ' milky way' they would not be satisfied, but this is going too far; food even half as good as the cabin would suffice, with some decent room they could sit in, protected somewhat from coal dust, engine-room heat, and other abominations. My remarks about food may be a digression, but I will finish the subject of accommodation by remarking that the troop deck in an ordinary transport has little to recommend it, but it is at least provided with certain conveniences. A ship's forecastle has nothing, and is often a disgrace to civilisation, and as also are the sleeping quarters sometimes allotted to officers and living rooms of petty officers in many vessels, though strictly fulfilling Board of Trade requirements for either a cold or hot climate.
"On shore princely palaces in the way of sailors' homes are in evidence, seamen's institutes, sailors' rests, etc., but seamen's dwelling places afloat are by no means open to the majority of people, so they remain practically as of old with, I respectfully submit, disastrous results. The men always want to get away from them."
In the general remarks of the same report the following statement occurs:
"In the year under report, the question was raised at home as to the space for Lascars on board ship being sufficient, and most officials connected with the mercantile marine and others were asked to report thereon, myself among the number. I may mention that in course of investigation I was on board the ss. Orissa of the British India Steam Navigation Co. and was much struck with her superior forecastle accommodation. The height of the forecastle is 6-ft. 10-in., and it measures up to 7,161 cubic ft., occupied by a crew of 80, which gives each man 18-1 superficial ft., 89-5 cubic ft., the space allotted by the Indian Merchant Shipping Bill of 1895, being respectively 6 and 86, and this is by no means a solitary case."
Thus, in a single official report, there is evidence of a most conflicting kind, regarding the important crew accommodation. Some of the observations are drawn from imaginary conditions as much as from real life, for the remark about the forecastle hand having always to sit on his chest with his tin dish, etc., is decidedly imaginary, for the European forecastle hand who patronises steamers of the tramp class does not as a rule possess such an article as a chest; he usually travels with a very light kit, contained sometimes in the usual bag. The chest may be found among those who stick to the sailing vessels, but for the steamer, the donkey[1] died its natural death when the Suez Canal—responsible for many changes at sea—became an accomplished fact. Steamers' forecastles, as well as those of
- ↑ Sea term for a sailor's chest.
