Toilets In Motion — Ship Toilets

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.

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.

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.

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

• Travel suggestions
• Back to Bob's home page....