>A modern water closet on the SS Olympic. Many First Class staterooms come with en-suite bath and water closet facilities.
Posted on 09/28/2020 5:54:24 PM PDT by NRx
A COUPLE of generations ago sanitary conditions on shipboard were either of the crudest or did not exist at all. It is a fact that in the days of the famous Yankee clippers the crews of those and contemporaneous craft were absolutely without toilet conveniences.
The first-class passengers of the sailing "packets" of the 1840's and 1850's and still later had no bathing facilities and the so-called lavatories were as foul as they were inefficient. The unfortunates who had to journey in the steerages were even worse off, the filth and immodesty of the sanitary arrangements, if they could be so called, being of an indescribable nature.
Ship fever, a form of typhus that afflicted immigrant ships in particular, was one of the outcomes of this neglect of sanitary principles. Scurvy, the old-time scourge of seagoers, was due to an improper diet, plus lack of ventilation, foul water, bodily uncleanliness and a total disregard of other matters having to do with the preservation of health.
In the case of the comparatively short voyage between this country and Great Britain outbreaks of sickness, and contingent deaths, were in those days invariable. The craft that plied between, say Australia and England, always had a " buried-at-sea " list to report at the end of the outward voyage.
Even the sailors of the ships-of-war of the great powers suffered from this stupid neglect of sanitation, the disease mortality among the fleets that took part in the Crimean War, the Chinese War and our Civil War being proof in point.
And in this connection reference may be made to the reports of a commission appointed by the British Government in 1869 for the purpose of inquiring into the continual diseases and deaths on transports employed to take soldiers to and from India...
(Excerpt) Read more at gjenvick.com ...
>A modern water closet on the SS Olympic. Many First Class staterooms come with en-suite bath and water closet facilities.
Pretty cool. A big water tank for flushing up above, or many smaller ones?
"Photo06 - The Blade-Douche Room - The Latest And Most Novel Form Of The Bath In addition to these there are other apparatus that give needle, spray or "bulb" effects. The "blade douche" can be directed on any portion of the body desired, and it is said to be as stimulating as it is pleasant. There are slight corrugations on the slab that are not seen in the picture that allow of the descending water readily passing away and so not causing discomfort to the bather."
In 63 I sailed on the last sail rigged snapper smack on the Gulf of Mexico, an old 80 ft Mobile schooner left over from WWII when to sail, a commercial fishing boat had to actually sail because fuel was unavailable. Toilet facilities were either to stand at the rail somewhere aft of amidships or hang one’s posterior over the transom. The Peggy G had a large crew, eleven men. There were no women out there except rarely on one of the smaller diesel boats on which the captain’s wife went as cook and she shared the same facilities. There was no onboard equipment.
So how does the toilet on a submarine work? Where does it flush to?
Darned if I know. Store it/pump it out when on the surface?
I think there is a complex set of pressure valves.
It is not just ‘flushed’ overboard.
I was trolling for smart remarks.
Heck, on a nuke sub, maybe they just incinerate it.
Your mind is always in the crapper...
Shitter’s full.
Ask Greta...she’ll tell you to use it as fuel...How dare you !!!
but wouldnt poop from and older sailor be considered ‘fossil fuel’ ???
:)
Put several thousand passengers plus crew on a single cruise ship and offer buffet dining where passengers help themselves to food and food while supposedly monitored still sets out in the open. Add to that miles of surfaces like handrails that are touched by everybody. You have all the makings of a floating epidemic.
ping - not so modern conveniences
In nautical tradition the bathroom/toilet is referred to as, "the head". A sailboat is on course when it is pointing towards it's heading; ie; the pointy end, up front, generally going towards where you want to go.
The reason one should do ones business up front (rather than the back) is because the waves will wash the bow clean. If you poop off the, "poop deck" the nasty bits follow you for your whole voyage.
In a sailing ship of yore there was actually seating forward at the head.On the Peggy G one balanced on the rail and held on to a handrail across the back of the deckhouse. I almost lost it when the rail came loose out of the rotting wood. It was a “roach boat” that got its crew by scooping up the waterfront winos and taking some first timers like me. The other beardless youth (a Creek Indian from Alabama) were tasked before we shoved off with shanghaiing a cook out of a fisherman’s bar. We bought him whiskey until he passed out then we got help from a couple of big guys standing at the bar to load him in the back of the captain’s truck (he weiged 350 or so).He woke up at sea and was content.
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