Abstract
Little discussion is given in Maritime Quarantine with regard to the medical aspects of quarantine. It focuses instead on the constitutional and economic nature of the detainment of ships, persons and cargoes. Britain thrived on maritime trading, but the fear of importing infectious diseases persisted for years. In its earliest years, quarantine was aimed at plague. Yellow fever and cholera were added later. Orders issued by the Privy Council were often vague; the quarantine list came to include any ‘fever in the nature of plague’.
Concerns of the Crown versus the desire for individual freedom, in this case in the matter of trade, made quarantine a problem. It was administered by the Customs service but the Privy Council issued orders through the Treasury. Quarantine Acts were applied in varying degrees, sometimes to the extreme, sometimes hardly at all. By the early 19th century the Customs service had become a subsidiary of the Board of Health.
Ships from suspect ports had to ‘air’ cargoes, as well as hold crews and passengers aboard, often for 40 days. A captain was required to present either a ‘clean bill of health’ or a ‘foul bill of health’ when his ship arrived. Numerous airing stations were set up around Great Britain, Ireland and the Channel Islands for cargoes.
Merchants were up in arms about goods being detained as it meant lost income. Customs officers were accused of collusion with merchants. Medical men argued that contagion was not a reasonable justification for holding up trade and in most cases was not even a cause for the spread of disease. They opted for distinction between ‘contagious’ and ‘infectious’. Appeals could be made and granted, in some cases for necessary items such as fresh fish, horses and cattle, Naval stores and even for well-connected passengers.
By 1884 medical inspection of ships began to be used along with quarantine. By 1896 maritime quarantine was outlawed and slowly merged with medical inspection, along with improvement in sanitation, diet and living conditions for seamen, until inspection alone remained.
John Booker's carefully researched and documented work fulfils the aim of his study: ‘to show that Britain found quarantine impossibly difficult’.