25 NOVEMBER 1899, Page 10

HORSES AT SEA.

IN only two points has the despatch of our Army overseas shown weakness. On certain transports the fresh meat intended to keep our men in health during the voyage was found to be unfit for food, probably because the management of the refrigerators was not understood, and the temperature allowed to be too high. This should be matter of instant inquiry, for more ships crowded with men are about to sail, and our men must not be insufficiently fed or half-poisoned on their way out.

The other breakdown took place on ships carrying the horses of cavalry regiments. These instances of loss and suffering among the animals of the Army at sea have fortunately been few. But a comparison of the accounts of what has happened with the evidence of past inquiries into cattle and horse transit by sea generally, leaves an impression that most of this loss and suffering might have been avoided if the recommendations of the Committee, and subsequently of the Board of Agriculture, had been properly followed on what are for the moment the nation's ships. The worst disaster took place in the passage between Durban and the Cape, on the steamship Wardha,' carrying part of the 9th Lancers from Bombay to South Africa. At the same time came news of a terrible loss of horses on the 'Rapidan,' a transport then making its way down the Irish Sea with cavalry horses. The bodies of these are still being washed up daily on the Welsh coast. The vessel was, it is true, caught in a very violent gale. But that is the contingency which the regulations now enforced on ordinary trading ships are designed to meet.

On a transport, whether it carries horses or mules, the animals do not have what is known as a "bad time." On the contrary, they rather enjoy life in normal weather, and if the voyage is not too long. As a rule the ship is a large one ; and if a cavalry regiment is going out each horse has its own trooper to groom and feed it. They are not poked away forward where ventilation is diffi- cult, as in cattleships, but occupy the best parts of the vessel. On each side of the steamer stalls are built. In these the horses stand with their tails towards the vessel's side, and their heads looking inboard. In front is a hoard rising breast-high, and over this the horse puts his head to feed and drink. The passage is wide and roomy. Up and down this the men pass with hay and water-buckets, pat their horses' heads and talk to them, and into it, or into spare stalls, they take the horses out of their narrow com- partments daily to be groomed. This gives them change, and helps to keep them healthy. Questions of management naturally divide themselves into two,—how are the horses best kept in condition in normal weather ? and how are they to be prevented from falling about and injuring themselves when the ship is tossing in a storm ?

Unfortunately, the precautions taken on our troopships to prevent loss in storms rather affect the comfort of the animals in good weather. A ship in a storm makes two main motions, not equally upsetting, but very nearly so. It pitches, fore and aft. The effect of this on horses standing across the ship, facing inboard, is to throw them on their sides. The second, and most dangerous, motion is the "roll." This pitches the horses backwards against the ship's side, and then forwards, so that their chests strike violently against the boarding in front. The first is uncomfortable, but does not matter. The ship's side would stand two hundred horses " sitting " on it in a row if she heeled over so far. But the second, unless the chest boards are so strong as to stand the sudden weight of a whole " side " of horses thrown against them, leads to frightful disaster. It was the giving way of these which caused the scene described by Lord Frederick Blackwood on the Wardha.' The ship got into the ocean swell which always rolls between the Cape and Durban when this was increased after a heavy gale. The steamer began to roll, and the roll became worse. Now it is well known that theoreti- cally a ship, if she begins to do this, and the direction of the waves is of a certain kind, and her distribution of weight "fits" the waves, may actually roll over. The way to prevent this is to set the ship at a different angle to the waves. Unluckily, the captain of the Wardha ' was pre- vented from altering the vessel's course by the very worst accident which could have befallen the ship. Her rudder had been carried away, she would not steer, and had to be left to roll her very worst. The Lancers stood or lay holding on to their horses' heads while the "shaky fittings," the secondary source of all the mischief, were breaking up, and about to let the whole cargo of horses be dashed together as if by the infernal malice of some Homeric god. This frightful disaster is the bad dream of all cap- tains of cattleships. The whole secret of successful trans- port of horses in a gale is that these fittings shall be so strong that they will not break from their hold on the deck when the cargo shifts. Nine-tenths of the legislation in regard to cattleships is intended to compel owners to have these partitions made solidly. It is difficult, because they are not part of the ship, but have to be bolted to the decks by some device. If the decks are of steel, then the safe fixing of these stalls is rather more difficult.

It is clear that this was neglected on the Warne.? The men eat holding on to the horses' heads to keep their chests from the front boards; but "at last the wooden framework of the stabling began to crack, and I expected every minute to see the whole thing collapse and all my men killed," writes Lord Frederick Blackwood. "I then went to Lund (a Captain in the 9th Lancers), and told him that I thought it was getting dangerous for my men to stay on any longer, and he gave the order for No. 1 troop horses to be abandoned. Five minutes after that one entire side of the woodwork gave way. Two of my chargers aud four others were immediately washed overboard. Now came the most horrible scene I have ever witnessed. The deck was covered with one mass of struggling horses and mules, mixed up with the broken woodwork of the stables, the whole being hurled first to one side of the deck and then to the other,—all horribly wounded, most with broken legs."

Mr. Henry Wood, of the Atlantic Transport Company, objects altogether to the narrow stalls—only 3 ft. 8 in. wide— in use on our troopers. He says that in shipping twelve thousand horses to all parts of the globe he has used large stalls, in which the horses can lie down, and that Ormonde' when he went to California had a stall 12 ft. by 12 ft., and that no thoroughbred he has shipped has died at sea. "The horse is a very sensible animal, and if he has room he will look after himself in any sort of weather." But even so the walls of his house must be firm.

The law enacts that "every horse shall be carried in a separate stall, which shall be constructed of sufficient strength to withstand the action of the weather and resist the weight of a horse thrown against it." Those on the • Wardha ' had no such strength. It is also obligatory for each box to be provided with a sling, and for the floor to be made rough with battens or sand. Slings were not used on the Cape voyage, because it was urged that on so long a voyage they would have cramped the horses. But it was not necessary to use them all the time. As it is, they have to stand on their legs, without lying down, for a voyage of six thousand miles. Nor are horses the only animals to be considered in reference to the war. Thousands of commissariat bullocks will be shipped to the Cape from foreign ports, and the rules binding on English cattle- ships ought to be enforced. These are that, in addition to strong partitions, the lower decks shall be properly ventilated, that the gangways to the ships shall not be too steep, and, that at every stopping place water shall be supplied free of cost on the request of any person having charge of the animals. They may not be carried on more than three decks, including the upper deck, and every con- signment of cattle must be in charge of a skilled foreman, with assistants numbering one to each twenty-five cattle. Food and water must be carried for every voyage of more than eighteen hours. These regulations were made as the results of the horrible disclosures before the Committee of 1894. At a time when animal suffering is increased by stress of war, these reasonable rules should not be neglected.