IN TROOPSHIP DAYS.

Patea Mail, Volume XXXVIII, 12 September 1913, Page 4

IN TROOPSHIP DAYS.

STRENUOUS DAYS AND NIGHTS.

Interesting reminiscences of the Devon in war time, when she was commissioned as a-troopship to transport New Zealand ' troops to South Africa in 1901, were -riven by Mr. Cecil Palmer to a Dominion reporter. The Devon, it may be remembered, took the North. Island battalion of the 9th Contingent to South Africa. After leaving Auckland and passing the Three Kings, the old Federal boat was called on to lift her forefoot to the first wash of a storm which lasted three days, and ultimately rose to cyclone force. \t the time the trim of the vessel -syas not exactly conducive to easy steaming under such circumstances. She was ndjn« lMit, and she had about 700 horses arranged' in tiers high up. She rolled alannmgly in the -storm, and, to make matters worse, each roll had a tendency to throw the whole of the horses to one side of the vessel. The steamer was six or seven days in making the trip from Auckland to Sydney, and lost no fewer than 35 horses during that short voynae. Out of the COO men comprising the battalion only two were able to turn up to meals for three days. Though twelve years have gone by since then, Mr. Palmer lias still a vivid recollection of the struggle with the maddened horses during the night when the hurricane was at its full force. Horses were, thrown together, and legs., broken, and they fought and kicked like tigers, while, to make the night more arduous (if anything more was needed), one solid sea after another .swept on board. It was a night of unadulterated misery not unmixed with apprehension for everyone. At every roll it seemed as though the whole of the horses might fetch loose en block, like the Chinese coolies in Joseph Conrad's story "Typhoon," and the two situation'could not have been very much different. The struggles of the animals which had been injured were pitiful, and many of them had to be shot. Tliat was the troopship's luck on the first stage of the trip, but misfortune, Jjke soldiers, often inarches in battalions. Just after the Devon cleared Sydney Heads, she had to put her head once more to an ugly rolling sea, and, that evening, just as* the man at the wheel was being relieved, the ship got momentarily in a'n unfavorable position with respect to the roll. That one moment was enough to cause a cargo derrick 2G feet long "to break loose from the guys, and at once it commenced swinging backwards and forwards like a giant flail, smashing both boats and rigging. To make matters worse, the see-saw motion of the three tiers of horses began again, and as Mr. Palmer puts it "the roll of the whole concern was simply dreadful." At the time the men had just completed two hours and a half work on "stables," and the cheery sound of tho bugle had just announced the welcome call to tea —'-'Corno to tho cook-house door, hoys! Come to the cook-house door." There was, however, nardiy a vistige of cookhouse to come to, for the swinging boom had caught it and smashed it, too. Seeing that the crew of the ship were too few to cope with the situation, volunteers wore called from the battalion .'to boar a hand—five men from each troop-deck—and these went up with alacrity, tired and hungry as they were. Already some of the horses had been hurt by being violently thrown against the rail qv tho sides of the boxes, but the volunteers quickly filled a number of sacks with straw, and there were ■speedily placed in all likely positions to act as butlers for the slipping and pitching horses. The measure proved effective. Meantime tho heavy derrick was still swinging free and smashing everything with which it came in contact, and the problem of how to capture it while tho ship was rolling so alarmingly seemed insoluble. At this stage, however, the Old ship's bos'n, over CO years of nge, took took in the position with true nautical instinct. He ran aloft till he was right over the derrick, and then, with a skill which a Mexican plainsman might have envied, he deftly lassoed it round its i trenie end. He was too clever to attempt to get it in hand at once, but by getting a steady purchase on his rope ii!, tile right part of the swing,' he cheeked its motion until it could bo finally seized and guyed.

Tlu> storm left the Devon with 'only two boats and several rafts, to continue the voyage with, and it was fully 'expected that the steamer would make this dangerous deficiency good by ship-

ping more boats at 'Melbourne. This,' however, was not done. :Mr. Palmer adds that, in addition to the horses, the contingent took about 3j sheep-dogs with them, which were intended to be used, for one purpose or another, on the veldt. Only five of them reached Africa. At the conclusion of the voyage the officers of the contingent were sufficiently impressed with the special services rendered by tho officers of the Devon in assisting to preserve the lives of the horses, that Major O'Brien, on behalf of the Now Zealand Government, paid over substantial bonuses to each.