4 Remarks on Damp Decks, and other Circumstances 



the partial renovation -of its consumption ; and likewise, in a cer- 

 tain degree, noxious gases, arising from animal effluvia, especially 

 that contained in unaired bedding, unwashed clothes, &c. and 

 the putrefaction, however slow, of provisions ; all which render 

 it the more noxious. 



Reflections on this invariable tendency to moisture, and on the 

 abovementioned particulars, point out the extreme necessity 

 of keeping the decks and cabins of ships as dry, yet clean, as 

 possible. Experience and scieuce grant, that the internal clean- 

 liness of ships is not only conducive to health, but absolutely es- 

 sential to the prevention of disease. 



The mode of effecting cleanliness is, however, often extremely 

 injudicious, or betrays incousideration, or something like igno- 

 rance. What honest candour extorts, surely will not be ascribed 

 to presumption. How many instances have there been of wash- 

 ing decks, and barely swabbing them after, when the entire at- 

 mosphere has teemed with fogs and moisture, vv-ithout a breath 

 of wind, when stoves hcive been deemed unnecessary, or not so 

 much as thought of ! To say the truth, under such peculiarities 

 of the atmosphere, common stoves can be of very little use; for 

 the rarefaction produced by their use tends but little, from its 

 slowness, to the extrication of moist air, when wind-sails can be 

 of little or no Hse. It causes an ascent not entirely to the hatch- 

 ways, but in part to the beams and planks overhead, where the 

 air thus partially rarefied insinuates itself, or is attracted ; and on 

 becoming somewhat condensed, accumulates, until its dispersion 

 by change of weather or alteration of temperature. Hence it is 

 that decks washed in damp weather are often not dry for two, 

 three, four, and even sometimes seven days after. In such states 

 of the air, an exact scrape and clean dry sweep is perhaps the 

 only mode necessary to be adopted. 



In frosty weather, or when the temperature is very low, some 

 estimate can be made of the surrounding vapour from its collec- 

 tion and condensation every morning overhead, on the planks 

 and beams of the lower decks and confined cabins. 



In the navy, the system of washing or scrubbing hammocks or 

 decks is, like every other system of it, rigid in the extreme. 

 Clothes, as shirts, stockings, &c. are generally washed or scrub- 

 bed twice a-week, oy which changes of the same are as often af- 

 forded, and are as conducive to comfort as absolutely essential 

 to health. Hammocks, as far as my experience authorizes me 

 to say, are also scrubbed twice, or, at least, once a-week all the 

 year round. In my hutnl>le opinion, once a-week in summer or 

 fortnight in winter, and relatively in hot or dry, and cold or moist 

 climates, if not carelessly left about the decks, is adequate to the 

 purposes of cleanliness. Is the frequency beyond this indispen- 

 sable ? 



