INFLUENZA ON TrOOPSHIP

Evening Star, Issue 16912, 9 December 1918, Page 2

INFLUENZA ON TrOOPSHIP

DAILY FUNERALS ON UNCLEAN VESSEL.

The Australian naval authorities in London are instituting an iniquity into the condticna aboard the troopship Barumba, which baa arrived there (says a cable message of November 22 to the Australian Press). The vessel carried over I.OCO men from Victoria, and South Australia, the majority being infantrymen, also a railway section and about 100 Bailors for the Australian Navy. Overcrowding gave rise to serious complaints, the deck accommodation being such lira.: the men below were only able at short periods to exercise and play games on dock in instalments. The hath accommodation was deficient, and there was frequent shortage cf washing water. Influenza broke cut atfer tho vessel loft Capo Town. The epidemic swept the entire riap, 800 being sick at one time. The hospital accommodation was limited, and the patients were lying ercrywl-eie on the decks and on tha batches. Hux-hig the sis days between Cape Town and Sierra Leone the outbreak was a-t its height. Twenty-five deaths occurred, sis in one dev. The chaplain held daily funerals. The medical supplies were inadequate, and were quickly exhausted. The two doctors worked manfully. H»ay men in the medical section became ill, and volunteers attended to tho sick. The condition*! were speedily ameliorated after the Boramba’s arrival at Sierra Leona, where she remained a week awaiting tha escort. Fresh supplies of drugs were obtained, and within two days most of tho .sufferers wore convalescent. The Baramba continued her voyage with a large oonvoy, under the escort of the cruiser-destroyor Britannia. She was picked up by a flotilla of destroyers in Hie Bay of Biscay, whereupon tho Britannia departed for Gibraltar, and wan torpedoed and sunk an hour later. Men aboard tho Baramfca state that the Teasel was in a filthy condition before she loft Australia. The planking covering the iron tSecks was so badly laid that tho interstices filled with dirt, and it was impoadbl-a to dean tha ship. Meat was cut up on deck. ■When sqxoo of the planking was lifted a eeething mass of maggots was found. The vessel was quite unsuitable to sleep SCO men in her single ’tween clacks. Tho following official naval statement is supplied:—“Tho actual number carried in the Baramba. on this voyage was 997. The vessel baa previously carried 1,258 without complaint, and is one of the best troopships in the earvics.’*