The heads in the head and the aft ...

[dafi]

As an introduction to some shxtty questions of mine I would like to recapitulate some thoughts that I already showed in my building report.

 

It started with bringing the seats of ease into the right proportions. In the front the one delivered with the kit, behind some better proportions.

 

 

Now they are even big enough for two backsides side by side without the danger of being trailed for sodomy ;-)

 

 

And in summer even with the shade of a cosy mariners walk.

 

 

 

This lead me to some small intriguing thoughts ...

 

... with 800 men crew and 6 seats we get this optimized calculation: 

 

800 men (NCO) / 6 seats gives 133 men/seat 

 

In a optimized 24 hours use using all seats we get the following numbers: 

 

24 hours = 1440 minutes 

 

1440 minutes / 133 men = 10,5 minutes/man per day. This means no second wasted and the next user always stand by. 

 

If you take account of that not the whole day it is possible to have this steady usage because of time, scedules and weather, the usage time per person sinks dramatically. If I remember well, constipation was widely spread, which leads to longer men mean residence time. 

 

So the conclusion is, that the heads, regarding the weather, daytime and service schedule, could possibly be a quite crowded place at certain moments. 

 

This account only includes the "big business". There still would be some persons too to be expected at the heads for the "small business", if they are not preferring hanging out in the shrouds (leewards): One hand for the ship and one hand for yourself - now that line is finally understood. 

 

A quick research in German Law and regulations indicates the following: 

 

Puplic Law of the State of lower Saxony defines that for a leisure event of 800 visitors the calculation should be: 

800:100 x 0,8 = 7 seated toilets and 800:100 x 1,2 = 10 urinals (always rounded) 

 

The Law of Working Spaces "Arbeitsstätten-Richtlinie, ArbStätt 5.037.1, vom 26. Juni 1976 (ArbSch. 9/1976 S. 322)" 

defines that for 250 employes one needs 10 seated toilets and 10 urinals, that means more than double for 800 employees. 

 

In a converse argument that leads to the conclusion: 

For a working place the ship should have 5 times more seated toilets and this leads to - that by the number of seats

- the ship must be a leisure event -

 

Join the Navy - see the better world! 

 

Sehr geehrter Gruß, Ihr treuergebener Diener

most sincerely, your humble servant,

 

dafi

Edited August 3, 2013 by dafi

[dafi]

Not included in the calculation are the roundhouses for the lower officers ...

 

 

... and the quarter galleries for the higher ranks ...

 

 

 

... and the uncounted amount of buckets all over the decks for days with bad waether - Bucket and chuck-it :-)

 

In the quarter galleries the places were nicely defined who had his own seating place with a view and who had to share. This already showed in the layout of the bulkheads dividing the officers mess.

 

On drawings of the early dutch, plenty of tassels are hanging on different locations on the heads and the galleries: To clean bums and buckets? (Thanx for Pollux for the pics)

 

 

On the Victory in Portsmouth one still can see an armchair on display with build in potty for the eminences on board.

 

To get all the merde away from the structural parts, there was a small chute or some tubes.

 

Here the slide of my Vic:

 

 

 

Also great the build-in waterflushing - every good wave counts ...

 

Also for some time, there were small cabins on the main channels, that I can´t imagin any other reason for.

Edited August 3, 2013 by dafi

[dafi]

So we are coming closer to my questions:

 

I think it was Cuck showing some tubing on the head of the HMS Winchelsea (1764)

 

 

The same is seen on a french model (Royal Louis?)

 

 

Louterbourg did a drawing of Queen Charlotte in the harbour as a sketch for his painting "Glorious first of June"

 

Funny enough, he shows some explicit quite flimsy tubing from the roundhouses downwards, which also ended up on the final drawing.

 

Question 1: As I never saw this before, could this be a harbor fitting, as the cleaning of the waves was missing?

(And accidentally ending up on a painting of a high sea action?)

 

 

Question 2: Which were the ranks to use the roundhouses? Non commissioned officers?

 

Question 3: Were there also ropes trailing the water on the heads for cleaning reasons?

 

Qustion 4: How were the upper seats in the quarter Gallery discharged? Wooden chute or led tubes downwards?

 

 

Thank you for your attention for a smelly topic of ill reputation,

 

Daniel 

Edited August 3, 2013 by dafi

[mtaylor]

Daniel... I found it.. I found this: http://nautarch.tamu.edu/Theses/abstracts/simmons.html   Basically, everything you might have wanted to know (or not know) about the...um...er.... "facilities" on board a ship.

[JerseyCity Frankie]

 

On page 115 of John Franklin's Navy Board Models there is a photo of the fo'castle bulkhead of the 80 gun Boyne of 1692 showing what the author terms the "Pi** Dale. And on page 122 he includes a line drawing of another example from an unidentified First Rate ship of 90 guns from 1702. Each model is in the National Maritime Museum in the U.K. I have not seen the subject touched upon anywhere else. Thanks Dafi for providing more excellent content. If you had your own show I would watch every episode.

 

 

[dafi]

Thank you Mark for ruining my night - so no block-buster TV but reading about potty-stories ;-)

 

Thanks Frankie for your kind words, there still so many exciting corners on those ships waiting to be explored :-)

 

Also Lavery in Arming and Fitting gives nice details about the **** dales and other fittings. 

 

According to that source, Admiral and Captain had each both galleries for their personal use, in the wardroom one side was for the first lieutenant and the other side for the remaining officers.

 

The roundhouse had different assignments. First both sides for the junior officers and the commissioned officers who did not have access to the wardroom. Later about 1815 when the sick berth was already placed behind the beakhead bulkhead, the larbord one was for the mates, midshipmen, and warrent officers and the starbord one for the sickbay.

 

The thesis Mark gave mostly just deals with the construction and the timely introduction. Some interesting features were mentioned.

http://nautarch.tamu...ts/simmons.html

 

The side shelves (small cabins on or under the main channels:

 

 

 

 

About the numbers of man compared to the amount of people

 

 

The roundhouses

 

 

 

And this one I found the most amusing:

 

 

Daniel

Edited August 4, 2013 by dafi

[augie]

Hat's off for a (more or less) tasteful treatment of a subject that should be known to us and yet minimally discussed!  It seems that machines of war have never been designed with the comfort of the crew as a paramount issue. 

 

Thanks again for the research.