LIFE ON THE DRAYTON GRANGE

New Zealand Mail, 27 August 1902, Page 22

LIFE ON THE DRAYTON GRANGE

STATEMENTS TY TWO NEW ZEALANDERS. There are at present in Wellington a number of irregulars who were passengers by the Drayton Grange on her now historic voyage with troops from Durban to Australia. Speaking to a representative of the “Times,” two New Zealanders who were members of the Australian Bushmen’s Corps, expressed the opinion that the ship herself was a good one to travel in, besides being clean. The trouble , was that there were too many men on board. "When the vessel left Durban there were 2090 troops on the papers, in addition to the crew, and during the early part of the voyage numerous stowaways made their appearance. The men at ■present in Wellington consider the number of stowaways as stated in evidence in Australia is greatly exaggerated, and that there were not more than aborat thirty or forty. - They had all contrived to possess themselves of suits of khaki, and the officials on the boat did not trouble themselves to investigate tho cases. The stowaways were permitted to add themselves *to the strength of the troops on board and live under the same conditions as the remainder. The mere presence of such large numbers of stowaways seems to reflect on the embarkation officers,' since troops are now never embarked at the quays of Durban itself. This is due to the lawlessness of several irregular corps, notably the Canadians, who “painted the town red” before embarking for their home. Most of the stowaways left the transport at Albany. A few days after leaving Durban one or two cases of measles broke out, and the epidemic gi- vdually increased. There was origina.ly hospital sceommodation for about forty patients, but as the outbreak spread, the officers’ smoking room and orderly room on the

top deck were also tused for invalids. By the time Albany was reached, there were 130 patients. On one day over a hundred men paraded before the dootor suffering from sicknesses of one sort and another, and the doctor refused to go beyond Albany jnless half of the patients were landed there, as he could not attend to them. The men seem to have undergone considerable hardship owing to overcrowding. There was no room on the decks for a great number of them, and they appear to have lived very much like Bedouins, sleeping wherever they could find nom to lie down. After eight o’clock at night it was impossible to move along the lower decks, as every available inch was covered by sleeping men, and hammocks hung overhead. A considerable number slept on the top deck throughout the voyage, slinging their hammocks where they could, or lying on tables or hatches, and catching cold on wet nights. This many of tnem preferred to venturing on the ordinary sleeping decks. The men deny that there was any dirtiness, among the troops which could have been avoided. After breakfast every morning the mess decks were well scrubbed and swilled down, tho only complaint in this connection being that the decks were always damp, and accordingly the men were very liable to catch cold. There was abundance of water on hoard, and the discomfort caused by the myriads of lice which infested the ship prompted the troops to spend a great part of their time in washing their clothes. As for washing themselves, they generally did so, but on account of the scanty conveniences for so doing, it was often not until the afternoon that some of them got their turn at the basins. The latrines were very inadequate, and were always fully occupied, night and day, especially when there was so much sickness on board. There were only two shower baths on the transports, and as these adjoined the latrines, they were generally used for the same purpose. Exercise was out of the question, owing to the crowded state of, the vessel. It was impossible to walk about v*ith any freedom, and the attention of the men was generally directed towards getting orat of tho way as best they could. So far from taking exercise, some of the men appeared to get into a state of despondency, and disappeared below, never reappearing on deck for days together. There were some who were not on deck more than half a dozen times throughout the voyage. To this is probably due a considerable amount of the sickness.

Even after the hospital accommodation nad been, extended by the conversion of portion of the officers’ quarters it was entirely inadequate. It was so uncomfortable in hospital that men sometimes left before they were really fix. and the result was rather bad tor their comrades. In one case, a man. who had left the hospital, and who was yet too unwell to be out of bed, was hanging for some days in his hammock over the table at which his comrades were messing. Others who should have been in hospital were perforce left to be cared for by thencomrades, to the detriment of the general health of the force.

With regard to the supply of liquor, the men say that each man was allowed a pint of beer a day by the ship. The fourteen pints for each mess was received in the morning by the mess orderlies. Some of the men drank it, others did not. It was generally more like vinegar than beer. Only on three occasions they say the beer was good. As usual, there were some men who did not drink, and consequently others who drank more than their own share. This accounted for some of the drunkenness on board, but it was possible to get an almost unlimited supply of whisky from tho canteen at so much per bottle. The only stipulation was that it should not be consumed in the canteen.

The fact that between meals many of the tables were used as beds by men who were too sick to be about did not conduce to improve the general. health of the ship. The food supplied by the ship, although plain, was of the best quality throughout the voyage.