Joe wrote:
"Scott Vernon" wrote in message ...

Weren't they for the sailors with VD?



Yes they were Scotty. The heads on Fletcher Tin Cans were long troffs
that salt water ran thru all the time dumping overboard. The troffs
were covered with boards with cut outs to sit on. The crew members
that had vd were restricted to useing the boards that were painted
red. Hence the name redheads.

This was shown not to be an effective and was phased out.

Joe

On the one ship I was on that employed these troughs, they were referred
to as "Mississippi's" (not the boards, the troughs).
One of the nastier tricks was to wait until the spaces were relatively
full, with butts, the brains of which were concentrating elsewhere .....
light a roll of head paper on fire and deposit it in the upper end, to
be washed down the length of the trough.
Timing, was everything, but the results could prove, errrr, interesting.

otn