Clean seas and hygeine

[j.sabourn]

Maybe someone’s memories are better than mine.. but before the introduction of sewage tanks, on passages around the Great Lakes of Canada , all sewage discharges to the sea were strictly prohibited. All sanitary water was shut off. We used to have put on board chemical toilets which were run off a 24 volt car battery. These chemical toilets were supposed to have a capacity of use for a 100 goes before they had to be emptied and recharged . How did we calculate how many we needed for a 50man crew when we didn’t even know how long we were going to be up the lakes. I can remember being up there with an Indian crew and the poor old topaz emptying a couple of them into a 40 gallon drum and recharging them. Maybe that’s why he was the loneliest man on the ship. JS

[Chris Allman]

I will say one thing about this. If the balance of those sewage tanks was not right eg not enough microbes doing their duty and breaking it all down, the ship stank. I did a trip on the Prince William (STA) and down below in the accommodation it permanently stank of poo. They kept saying it was because the ship was new and the microbiology levels in the tanks had not settled yet. Think I preferred the Chemical Toilets at least they were out on deck and the accommodation did not stink of poo.

[Colin Wood]

Obviously they did not use the 'Kenny' principal. if you are serving curry, treble the number of portable toilette's.

[j.sabourn]

I think if I remember right we had about 12 for a 50 crew ship. Although may have been a bakers dozen. But they rarely sufficed. Wasn’t too bad with an Indian crew as had the old Topaz to manage the remnants of the Dahl. As a 100 goes was not a lot. This was in the days when you took your fresh water from the lakes so you got back what you put in. Think the maximum draft for the Welland Canal was 26 or 27 foot 6 inches so never came in or out fully loaded , and had to top off in one of the St. Lawrence ports , our loaded draft on one ship was 35 feet, so at that period of time was one of the biggest ships up there. We had over 300 tons of dunnage also to come out of the ship and landed ashore for supposedly burning, but would imagine some of it went into the building trade. So anyone’s house that fell down with red ant eating away at parts of their house had themselves to blame. JS

[happy daze john in oz]

What a crappy subject!
Obviously a need for the 'Night Cart Man' there.