209 



DAMAGE TO CARGO. 



That rats on shipboard in any such numbers as mentioned above 

 must do much damage to cargo can not be doubted. 



Inquiry as to the extent of this damage showed that there were no 

 data on the subject. That such damage was common and consider- 

 able, however, was revealed by the fact, elicited by these inquiries, 

 that nearly every steamship company on both the Atlantic and 

 Pacific took precautions both to keep rats from getting on board and 

 to destroy them after they did. One example will show what damage 

 may occur. The British steamer Gadsby, on a voyage from India to 

 Antwerp, covering a period of twenty-nine days, had 44,000 out of 

 46,000 bags of wheat cut by rats, with an estimated damage of $2,200. 



The constant and almost universal presence, then, of rats on ship- 

 board can not be doubted, and if it could the results of fumigation, 

 wherever practiced with SO 2 , would serve to settle the question, for 

 they are found under all conditions, even on the most unlikely vessels. 



How do these rodents gain* access to a vessel ? It has been the 

 custom to assume that they came on board from the docks over the 

 side when this was possible, and when it was not, as when the vessel 

 was fended off or stood too high out of the water, that they made use 

 of the gangways, mooring lines, hawsers, etc., as avenues of communi- 

 cation. It is still the practice, therefore, in enforcing antirat pre- 

 cautions, to compel the ship to fend off 6 feet from the dock, to wear 

 rat funnels on all lines, and to raise the gangway from the dock at 

 night. Just a word as to these precautions. The most practical 

 fender is a floating one made of heavy timbers either bolted together 

 into a solid frame, with the necessary cross braces bolted in, or made 

 up of logs or spars chained together. They should be long enough 

 to distribute the pressure of the vessel as the tide moves over a num- 

 ber of piers or piles so that the weight does not bear, through the 

 medium of these fenders, on just one or two of the wharf foundations. 

 Such a fender will stay in position, will do no damage to the vessel, 

 and no matter how great the amplitude of the tide may be, will always 

 remain below the ship's gunwale and can not therefore be utilized by 

 rats as a means to get on board. Large vessels require at least two. 

 Small ones need but one, and it was found in San Francisco, in the 

 case of those vessels changing then- mooring several tunes daily, that 

 this one could be carried from wharf to wharf by the vessel without 

 trouble or delay simply by lashing it edgewise outside on top of the 

 guard. 



Funnels should be of heavy galvanized iron, circular in shape, and 

 not less than 36 inches in diameter. The spout of the funnel should be 

 3 inches in diameter and should be at least 18 inches long. The flange 

 of the funnel should be soldered to this 18-inch pipe at its middle so 

 that the spout projects 9 inches out of the funnel and 9 inches into it. 



