The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-11-29
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DELAYS OF QUARANTINE.
The 34-Dny Trip of Q Bark From
SapeIo to Savannah.


Capt F. w. Fairbanks of the bark
knight Commander. which sailed Friday
for London with a cargo or rosin left be-
hind him statement of his experience at
the Sapelo and Savannah guarantee sta
tions, complaining of the unusual delay
to his vessel and the inconvenience and
hardship suffered there.
Capt Fairbanks had four typewriter
copies made of his statement. One was
sent to the Morning News and one to DR..
LeHardy. What was done with the other
copies is unknown.
Shortly after his arrival in Savannah,
Capt Fairbanks said he wanted to make
complaint against the guarantees. He
gave an account of his experience, COM
planning chiefly of the delay to which he
had been subjected. He said however,
that he had prepared statement of his
experience The. statement is chiefly of
interest in showing the delay to which
vessels are subjected by reason of the poor
condition of the two quarantine stations,
His experience with the disinfesting fluid
is an old one with ship masters.
Capt. Fairbanks heads his statement
Experience of the Bark knight Com
mander in the United States quarantine
and at Sapelo."
He says: my ship was detained from
Sept. 25 until Nov. u in quarantine. She
was off Sapelo Sept. 26, and did not get a
pilot until Wednesday, Sept. 80 She lay
at anchor off Sapelo bar for two days,
and rode out the cyclone of Sept 20. Pre-
yious to this the weather had been fine
and there was no excuse for such neglect
on the part of the pilots at Sapelo. When
we arrived at the quarantine station L
found that we would have to wait at least
fortnight before we would come in turn
for the station. Oct. Is our turn came
when we hauled alongside, and commenced
to discharge ballast. The station is IN
a most dilapidated condition. In the nrst
place, they can only work one vessel at
a time and the gear to work with is worn
out and broken The ship had to dis
charge all her ballast, 700 tons, and take
$50 tons of stone, which was obtained by
the crew from under the wharf. This
stone has to be picked out from the water
by hand and passed on board, and each
little particle has to be dipped in tubs of
bichloride of mercury solution before IT Is
put in the ships hold. When all the
stone is in the ship is fumigated with SUI
phur, after which the hold, cabin and
forecastle are drenched out with a BIZ
chloride solution, which, needless to state,
ruins everything that 1t comes in contact
with 1t burns the paint off, causing II
to run in streaks, corrodes and destroys
all metal, and is a deadly poison, endan-
gering the lives of the crew from acct
dent with the filthy stuff.
THE knight Commander went into Sa-
II IL as.I ashi In In w
new paint; also with a clean bill of health
record since 1892 She came out of Sapelo
Oct. 20 sinking with filthy sulphur fumes,
all her clean, new paint spoiled and de-
stroyed and saturated throughout with
the horrible bichloride abomination. The
large mirror in the saloon was spoiled by
the solution being thrown on the back of
it, destroying the silver on the glass. One
hundred dollars would not pay for the
damage done to the ship, to say nothing
of the detention-only thirty-four days,
"Our trubles were not ended here. The
ship after going through all this, was not
clean or healthy enough to satisfy the
Savannah board of health. She had to
suffer further detention of thirteen days
at the Savannah quarantine, where she
had to discharge the ballast so much trou-
BILE had been taken to disinfect. As at Sa :
pelo, she had to wait her turn. This sta
ton, which can accommodate two YES
a
certainly it's own. is in a most dilapi-
dated condition. In the first place, there
are no proper trustworthy posts to make
the ship fast to. The lines have to he
made fast to beams, or the ends of cross
blanks, much to the detriment of the
lines. The runs for dumping the ballast
are in a broken down condition; in fact,
the whole place is in an urgent need of
a thorough overhauling. l wish nothing
in this to be the slightest reflection o.
the doctors in charge of either station, for
great credit is due to them for the way
they carry on their work under the ex-
ceptionally trying circumstances in which
they are placed. They have hard and fast
rules, which they are obliged to carry out,
never mind how absurd or irritating they
may be.
"At the Savannah quarantine the ball
last is weighed in a small box on steel
yard a few pounds at a time, and the av-
erage of several hundred tons has to he
taken from this. A pound for or against
the station means about eight to ten tons
on 200. No wonder the ship masters are
not satisfied"
The statement is signed, Fred w. Fair
banks, r. n. r., master" The 'R- N. r."
stands for Royal Naval Reserves of Great
Britain, of which Capt. Fairbanks is a
member. The Knight Commander came
to SapeIo from Santos a port which is
commonly regarded as hotbed Of yell
low fever All vessels from this port are
sent to the national quarantine station at
Sapelo for disinfection. The detention of
vessels from Santos, however, is no
greater than from other suspected ports,
the usual delay, with prompt handling,
being about fourteen days.
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