Quarantine

====British maritime quarantine rules 1711–1896====
{{Infobox UK legislation
| short_title           = Quarantine Act 1710
| type                  = Act
| parliament            = Parliament of Great Britain
| long_title            = An Act to oblige Ships, coming from Places infected, more effectually to perform their Quarentine.
| year                  = 1710
| citation              = 9 Ann. c. 2
| introduced_commons    =
| introduced_lords      =
| territorial_extent    =
| royal_assent          = 23 December 1710
| commencement          =
| expiry_date           =
| repeal_date           =
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| collapsed             = yes
}}
The plague had disappeared from England for more than thirty years before the practice of quarantine against it was definitely established by the Quarantine Act 1710 (''[[9 Ann.]]'').<ref>{{cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/statutesatlargef04grea/page/420/ |title=Quarantine Act 1710 |last=Stuart |first=Anne |year=1710 |trans-title=9 Ann. Chapter II A.D. 1710 |series=The Statutes at Large : from Magna Charta, to the End of the Last Parliament, 1761 |location=London, Great Britain |via=Internet Archive |publisher=Mark Baskett, Henry Woodfall, and William Strahan |volume=IV |pages=420–421 |oclc=228755149}}</ref> The first act was called for due to fears that the plague might be imported from Poland and the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]] [[Baltic region|region]]. The second act of 1721 was due to the prevalence of plague at [[Marseille]] and other places in [[Provence, France]]. It was renewed in 1733 after a new outbreak in [[continental Europe]], and again in 1743, due to an epidemic in [[Messina]]. In 1752 a rigorous quarantine clause was introduced into an act regulating trade with [[the Levant]], and various arbitrary orders were issued during the next twenty years to meet the supposed danger of infection from the Baltic region. Although no plague cases ever came to England during that period, the restrictions on traffic became more stringent, and in 1788 a very strict Quarantine Act was passed, with provisions affecting cargoes in particular. The act was revised in 1801 and 1805, and in 1823–24 an elaborate inquiry was followed by an act making quarantine only at discretion of the [[privy council]], which recognised yellow fever or other highly infectious diseases as calling for quarantine, along with plague. The threat of cholera in 1831 was the last occasion in England of the use of quarantine restrictions. Cholera affected every country in Europe, despite all efforts to keep it out. When cholera returned to England in 1849, 1853 and 1865–66, no attempt was made to seal the ports. In 1847 the privy council ordered all arrivals with a clean [[bill of health]] from the [[Black Sea]] and the Levant to be admitted, provided there had been no case of plague during the voyage, and afterwards the practice of quarantine was discontinued.<ref name=Booker>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B7OoDQAAQBAJ&pg=PT5 |first=John |last=Booker |chapter=Maritime Quarantine: The British Experience, c.1650–1900 |title=The History of Medicine in Context |publisher=Routledge |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-351-91984-5 |access-date=6 February 2020 }}</ref>

After the passing of the first Quarantine Act (1710) the protective practices in England were haphazard and arbitrary. In 1721 two vessels carrying cotton goods from Cyprus, then affected by the plague, were ordered to be burned with their cargoes, the owners receiving an [[indemnity]]. By the clause in the Levant Trade Act of 1752, ships arriving in the United Kingdom with a "foul bill" (i.e. coming from a country where plague existed) had to return to the [[lazaret]]s of Malta, Venice, Messina, Livorno, Genoa, or Marseille, to complete a quarantine or to have their cargoes opened and aired. Since 1741 [[Stangate]] Creek (on the [[Medway]]) had been the quarantine station but it was available only for vessels with clean bills of health. In 1755 lazarets in the form of [[Hulk (ship type)|floating hulks]] were established in England for the first time, the cleansing of cargo (particularly by exposure to [[dew]]s) having been done previously on the ship's deck. No medical inspections were conducted, but control was the responsibility of the Officers of [[Customs|Royal Customs]] and quarantine. In 1780, when plague was in Poland, even vessels with grain from the Baltic region had to spend forty days in quarantine, and unpack and air their cargoes, but due to complaints mainly from [[Edinburgh]] and [[Leith]], an exception was made for grain after that date. About 1788 an order of the council required every ship liable to quarantine to hoist a [[yellow flag (contagion)|yellow flag]] in the daytime and show a light at the main topmast head at night, in case of meeting any vessel at sea, or upon arriving within four [[league (unit)|leagues]] of the coast of [[Great Britain]] or [[Ireland]], the [[Channel Islands]], or the [[Isle of Man]].<ref name=Booker/>

After 1800, ships from plague-affected countries (or with foul bills) were permitted to complete their quarantine in the Medway instead of at a Mediterranean port on the way, and an extensive lazaret was built on [[Chetney Hill]] near [[Chatham, Kent|Chatham]] (although it was later demolished). The use of floating hulks as lazarets continued as before. In 1800 two ships with [[hide (skin)|hides]] from [[Mogador]] in Morocco were ordered to be sunk with their cargoes at the [[Nore]], the owners receiving an indemnity. Animal hides were suspected of harbouring infections, along with a long list of other items, and these had to be exposed on the ship's deck for twenty-one days or less (six days for each instalment of the cargo), and then transported to the lazaret, where they were opened and aired for another forty days. The whole detention of the vessel was from sixty to sixty-five days, including the time for reshipment of her cargo. Pilots had to pass fifteen days on board a convalescent ship. From 1846 onwards the quarantine establishments in the United Kingdom were gradually reduced, while the last vestige of the British quarantine law was removed by the [[Public Health Act]] of 1896, which repealed the Quarantine Act of 1825 (with dependent clauses of other acts), and transferred from the privy council to the [[Local Government Board]] the powers to deal with ships arriving infected with yellow fever or plague. The powers to deal with cholera ships had been already transferred by the [[Public Health Act 1875]].<ref name=Booker/>

British regulations of 9 November 1896 applied to [[yellow fever]], [[Bubonic plague|plague]] and [[cholera]]. Officers of [[Her Majesty's Customs]], as well as of [[Her Majesty's Coastguard]] and the [[Board of Trade]] (for signalling), were empowered to take the initial steps. They certified in writing the master of a supposedly infected ship, and detained the vessel provisionally for not more than twelve hours, giving notice meanwhile to the [[Port authority|port sanitary authority]]. The medical officer of the port boarded the ship and examined every person in it. Every person found infected was taken to a hospital and quarantined under the orders of the medical officer, and the vessel remained under his orders. Every person suspected could be detained on board for 48 hours or removed to the hospital for a similar period. All others were free to land upon giving the addresses of their destinations to be sent to the respective local authorities, so that the dispersed passengers and crew could be kept individually under observation for a few days. The ship was then disinfected, dead bodies buried at sea, infected clothing, bedding, etc., destroyed or disinfected, and [[bilge-water]] and [[Sailing ballast|water-ballast]] pumped out at a suitable distance before the ship entered a dock or basin. Mail was subject to no detention. A stricken ship within 3 miles of the shore had to fly a yellow and black flag at the main mast from sunrise to sunset.<ref name=Booker/>