Toilets In Motion — Ship Toilets

This scenic head is on board the F/B Artemis Greek ferry en route from Ios to Santorini in the Aegean.

One of the heads and the flushing mechanism on board a rented Crusader canal boat in France.

Here is the head on an Orion, a very similar rented canal boat in France.

The Crusader was derived from the earlier Orion design. The only differences I noticed between the two boat designs were:

• A bow thruster was added to the Crusader design.
• The main helm position is designed a little differently.
• The domestic water supply is designed differently, with multiple much smaller pressure tanks on the earlier Orion versus a single much larger pressure tank on the Crusader.
• The simpler toilets on the earlier Orion, which worked much better. The Orion toilets are operated by pressing a waterproofed button on the panel below the counter to pump water into the bowl, and stepping on a foot pedal (barely visible below the bowl in the image at right) to open the large flapper valve into the holding tank. For much better performance, use the detachable shower spray nozzle. The entire head compartment is the shower, see the picture at right with the drain in the floor. The Crusader heads had a complicated and poorly performing T-handle pumping mechanism.

I have taken these on trips on the Canal Latéral à la Loire between Briare and Decize, and on the Canal du Midi between Port Cassafieres and Castelnaudary. Click here for many more pictures of those trips.

Egyptian ferry on Nuweiba-Aqaba route between the Sinai and Jordan.

No sprayer, but at least there's a hose. Actually pretty nice by Egyptian public toilet standards.

And I must emphasize that it's rust you see there!

This is from a trip from Cairo to İstanbul through Egypt, Jordan, Syria and Turkey.

The Staten Island Ferry provides free rides from the lower tip of Manhattan (New York, USA), past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, to Staten Island, and back.

If you need to go before you board, at left is an all-stainless-steel model in the Manhattan terminal.

At right is one of the heads on board the ferry itself.

Also see the Stainless Steel Toilets page if you are interested in that category.

New York Water Taxi on the East River between lower Manhattan and Brooklyn, and its on-board toilet.

The M/V Hamnavoe ferry links the Orkney Islands with the north coast of Scotland.

There are several sailings a day, 90 minutes en route each direction.

Here are the heads.

The M/V Isle of Mull is one of the many ferries connecting the Inner Hebrides islands with the west coast of Scotland.

Here is one of the heads as photographed during a trip from Oban to Craignure on the Isle of Mull.

Rose George's The Big Necessity: The Unmentionable World of Human Waste and Why It Matters is a fascinating description of sanitation conditions around the world. "2.6 billion people don't have sanitation. [....] Four in ten people have no access to any latrine, toilet, bucket, or box. [....] Poor sanitation, bad hygiene, and unsafe water — usually unsafe because it has fecal particles in it — cause one in ten of the world's illnesses. [....] Diarrhea — nearly 90 percent of which is caused by fecally contaminated food or water — kills a child every fifteen seconds. The number of children who have died from diarrhea in the last decade [1998-2008] exceeds the total number of people killed by armed conflict since the Second World War.

In September 2009, Morna Gregory and Sian James published a book titled Toilets of the World. It's pretty much the same theme that you find here — photographs and commentary on other people's plumbing.

The Porcelain God: A Social History of the Toilet, by Julie Horan, contends that civilization began with the toilet.

Toilet: Public Restrooms and the Politics of Sharing, edited by Laura Noren and Harvey Molotch, has essays by anthropologists, sociologists, and architects on the importance of the toilet, especially for urban dwellers.

Latrinae Et Foricae: Toilets in the Roman World describes the toilets of the Roman Empire from Iberia to Syria, and from North Africa to Hadrian's Wall in Britannia.

Toilets, Bathtubs, Sinks, and Sewers: A History of the Bathroom, explains the history of personal cleanliness and hygiene to children in grades 5-8.

If you're not bored yet, you might be interested in (or at least tolerate):

• Travel suggestions
• To Bob's main site