San Salvador Sanitation

I spent some time Sunday visiting the replica ship the San Salvador over in Morro Bay (1542 is when is the real San Salvador cruised past here). It was quite awesome and would have been worth it at twice the price (only $7.00!). It was really very beautiful and being so new, it did not yet have that dirt-stained "lived in look."

The upper decks were open to the tour and there were three areas where the sixty men on board the real San Salvador slept. We did not get to see below decks where most of the crew bunked, but the officers had an upper deck area where they had stacked, curtained bunks, and the captain - Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, had his own private room. Naturally, this being a sewer blog, I wondered about sanitation aboard ship. 

Note the chamber pot, and this was in Cabrillo's cabin. Well, I guess it beats the outdoor accommodation I saw at the Lane Victory some years back when I went on a cruise to Catalina. I wrote about that here:

http://losewersaga.blogspot.com/2014/01/alfresco-potty-at-sea.html

At least Cabrillo got some privacy. I did not ask what the others used, or where. I got stuck on the chamber pot thing and the logistics of using one of those. Toilet paper wasn't common in the western world, and I doubt they had corncobs on board ship. I might find the time to research this Cabrillo issue further, but you can read a bit about toilet paper here in the mean time:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_paper

http://encyclopedia.toiletpaperworld.com/toilet-paper-history/complete-historical-timeline

Alfresco Potty at Sea

I was looking for some shots of a sewer plant that I had visited years ago but instead ran across some photos I'd taken while at sea, on my way to Catalina aboard the S.S. Lane Victory. This ship is one of the many Victory ships used in World War II, the Korean War and after, when they were converted to uses other than cargo ships or scrapped. My dad had been in the WWII Merchant Marines, so a sailing tour out of San Pedro to Catalina on this refurbished, floating museum seemed like an interesting and educational trip (for my sister and I) down memory lane (for him).

I wouldn't be writing about this trip if the item below was not hanging off the side of the ship. But to show another side of sewer, this time the ocean itself, seemed appropriate to this Los Osos sewer blog.

I personally can't imagine how desperate I'd have to be to use such an item as this, but I guess, putting myself in the unselfconscious frame of mind as a fish, perhaps in the dead of night........ I think you had to bring your own un-fish-like toilet paper, you really couldn't leave "tissue" out in the damp sea air.

If you are in San Pedro and want an unforgettable experience (you do get a nice lunch too), visit the Lane Victory (the real bathrooms are inside), for either a visit to the museum while the ship is docked, or a cruise. I'm including a link to the ship's website. You might want to visit the Lane Victory's Facebook page too.