LIFE ON AN INDIAN TROOPSHIP.

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 108, 3 November 1900, Page 1 (Supplement)

LIFE ON AN INDIAN TROOPSHIP.

The war correspondent of the Daily Mail, who left Calcutta for China on the troopship Nuddea on the 3rd July, sends to his paper the following interesting account of his passage :—: — On the miscellaneous collection of bales and packages with which the deck was laden sat, squatted, or laid same three or four hundred sepoys and followers, very hot, very dirty, and full of wonder at their new surroundings. Presently l they began to settle down a bit, and all the stores having been successfully deposited in the hold the sepoys began to make themselves comfortable, and' talked, smoked, and ate as though they liad been used to being on the water every day of their lives ; in fact, later in the evening, they had so far adapted themselves to their position that we heard a little weird and melancholy music, wafted aft as we glided slowly down the Hoogbly after dinner, and evidently emanating from the Afridi section of the community. The Nuddea did not go very far that- night, but cast anchor just opposite to Prince's Ghat, facing the Calcutta, Maidan, the myriad lights of the city twinkling merrily on her starboard bow. At about 4 o'clock in the morning, while the city still slept and the shipping loomed up stem and grey on either side, she stole quietly away and proceeded on her course up the river. But a few hour 3 later she stuck in mid-stream, and owing to the falling tide is was not until well into the middle of the afternoon that it was possible to resume the voyage. The next day she reached the open sea and dropped her pilot, the pilot brig signalling with, flags, " Success, adieu." From this time onward, for three days tho weather was stormy. The Nuddea is not at all a large ship, and she rolls fearfully in a heavy sea. All the sepoys, with the exception of a couple of dozen or so, were utterly^jvnStmte^, and ' only two of €he officers we're fit enough to descend to the saloon for meals. Afterwards the weather settled down to a beautiful calm, but the heat was very great throughout th© voyage. The horses suffered fearfully during the stormy days, and Colonel Lome Campbell's charger Warrior, to which he was greatly attached, as it had been, through several campaigns with him, was killed. Ico and vegetables began to run very short as the vessel neared Singapore, but she was not allowed to stop thore even for an hour or two, although every one on board was dying for news, as the captain had strict orders to push straight on. to Hong Kong. .bvery day during the fin© weather the men were paraded on deck and instructed in the use of the new .303 Lee-Enfield rifle, which most of them had only just had given to them, and firing practice took place every afternoon at empty casks and bottles, the Government having allowed ammunition at the rate of fifty rounds per man for ■ us© on board ship. There were 370 fighting men on board and 126 followers. The men consisted of four companies, two Sikhs, one Afridi, one Punjabi Mahommedans, so we had a fairly representative collection of the flower of India's army. They nearly all have the medals for the last two frontier campaigns, and there are a few men left among them who were in Roberta's march on Kandahar, including Subadar Deva Singh, who was all through the Afghan War, including the march on Kandahar, through the Black Mountain expedition, and the N.W. frontier campaign of 1897-98, including 1 the defence of the Malakand, relief of Chakdar, and operations in the Upper Swat Valley, etc. H© also accompanied the late General Lockhart as one of his escort on the Afghan Boundary Commission. The regiment, it will be remembered, distinguished itself considerably in, the last frontier campaign, where Major Climo gained the Distinguished ServiceOrder.