AMBULANCE BARGE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11685, 29 April 1916, Page 1

AMBULANCE BARGE.

THE HOPE OF WOUNDED MEN. T camo upon Iter by the hanks of a lazy canal which Lends around the fringo of a pretty little town, set almost cut of earshot of the reverberant front, says the Press Association's special correspondent at the British Headquarters in France. She lay in a niile-long lino of barges, deep laden ■with munitions of Avar, and it was her lofty freeboard towering above the rest of them tliat- first arrested my eye. I then noticed that she was somehow different from other great grimy transport lighters. Instead' of long, battened hatches she rose above decks in a roofed superstructure, and her paintwork was bright mid clean, figures 110 standing gigantic crimson characters upon her bluff bow; The languid breeze presently lifted the flag which drooped from the short jackstaff amidships, and I then saw the Red Orosi. I had heard' so much about: the barges of the ambulance flotilla, that this opportunity to inspect one! was not to be lost. The vessel had just finished evacuating a freight of siok and wounded brought down from behind the firing line, and th© medical' officer in charge stood upon the afterdeck writing in a note-book. My request for permission to step aboard was met with a cheery acquiescence, and' I passed over the broad "brow" sloping from the back to the rail. There was little enough, room for walking about on the top sides of that 160 ft of length and 20ft of beamno more than a very narrow gangway on either side of the superstructure, where a false step meant prompt ditching. "NOT EXACTLY A LINER." " Not exactly a liner," said the medical officer with a smile, "butquite the best method of conveying wounded between dressing stations and base that we have yet devised. There is complete absence of that vibration and' jolting .which is so painful and often dangerous in the case of bad wounds. In fact, when you are below you really cannot tell whether you are moving or not, for however hard it blows the amount of ' eea '■ raised in a canal does not put a tremor into a hull of this size. I inquired how many such craft there were in the. ambulance service, and was told twelve at the present time, with others in the course of completion. Each has accommodation for thirty cot cases. They are all French transport barges; specially chosen and reconstructed internally for their work. They are towed' from station to station to avoid the shaking which would bg caused by machinery. "We are really quite a good little self-contained hospital," said the medical officer. "Come below." He led the Tray down a- short flight of companion steps into a very light and airy ward, beneath the beams pf which there .was Jleadroem, ~The-j beds were' ranged' along either broadside, with a wide passage down the middle. No sick-bay of the latest Dreadnought could bo more roomy or complete. Amidships was- a stretcher lift, by means of which sufferers were brought below and sent up again' for .carrying ashore. , OFFICER'S PRIDE IN HIS SHIP. The officer took us around with conscious pride in his ship. Right aft was the kitchen, equipped upon a scale which, carried its own assurance as to the manner in which the patients Are catered for. Adjoining was the dynamo room, in which a powerful service of electric light is generated. Hero, too, was a comfortable berthing accommodation for four N.C.O.'s and eight men. *' In times when warm work is going on we reserve the ambulance barges as far as possible for tho most serious cases," said the doctor, "but when things are t>retty quiet we assist to empty the casualty clearing stations without distinction. It usually takes us three days to look right through from end to end of our- waterway, and during this time the poor fellows aboard geb a spell of most perfect rest before being sent to a. hospital ship or otherwise disposed of.;' These craft arc getting a very wide reputation in the Army, and it is the hope of everv camaltv to be sent to one of them." He led the way forward, where he showed'me very pleasant quarters allotted to four nursing sisters, a very fully stocked dispensary, and sanitary arrangements upon a. scale that mado the wood barge an absurd anomaly in association with them. . "This is rav cabin.-' said he, openin* the door. "Quite a cosy little crib for a- war billet! Come r.i and write vonr name in our visitors "book. As von may see. you will not be in undistinguished company, including some of the most illustrious peopie in" 3 France. Lock at tho first autograoh."'' I"opened the slender volume he passed me. At the first page and in the centre of it T found written in a firm, clear hand, " George R.I. The day of my accident."