Accommodation

The 1854 Merchant Shipping Act allotted at least 54 of cubic feet for hammocks and 72 cubic feet in the case of bunks for Europeans. In 1876, personal accommodation for Lascars was limited to 36 cubic feet compared with 72 cubic feet for Europeans (Visram 2002, 55). Part of the law under consideration in 1902 was to raise the accommodation space from 36 cubic feet in line with the European accommodations of 72 cubic feet (MM Committee 1903, Appendix Q no. 2). By the First World War, individual space was 120 cubic feet for European crew and 72 cubic feet for lascar crew. Limitations on Lascar accommodation extended to communal space. On some vessels there was a separate lascar galley, while on others, Lascars did not have mess tables, seats, or lockers, and had to sit on the deck to eat meals (Mercantile Marine Committee 1903, Appendix J no. 2).