The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-06-30
LANDSMEN WHO WILL NEVER AGAIN
SHIP AS CATTLEMEN.
story of st. Louis Young Man Who
Wanted a Junket to South Africa
and Was Wrecked

NEW YORK. June 29.~-Twenty-three
young men from st. Louis, who had had a
longing to see the world, arrived here OF
the steamer Prins Wilhelm v from Port
au-Prince, Haiti. with nothing left but the
ragged clothing they wore and an intense
warming to get back to their native city
and stay there. They had shipped as cat
tlemen on the British transport Carinthia
which left New Orleans on May II. with d
load of mules for the British army in
South Africa and went ashore and wrecked
four days later on Point Gravis, Haiti.
when a fine military looking man came
to ST. Louis said Charles w. Pratt. one
of the returned wanderers, land said he
was an agent of the British army looking
Cor young men who would like to take a
fine sea voyage to Cape Town and return,
and get paid for it to boot, the boys in my
section fairly fell over each other to get
the place. There were 165 applications
ahead of me. but I was picked out with
sixty-four others who were chosen. The
military man pictured the trip as a sort
of excursion. All we would have to do, he
said. would be to feed a few mules twice
a day on the way over. He would pay us
80 " Az tAAPs oAo LAit hC Ofo VI tic
beautiful sea voyage with sea birds flying
and porpoises jumping and all hat sort
of thing. We went to New Orleans and
shipped on board the Carinthia, where we
found a contract which said nothing about
a return trip. The captain limited. how
ever. that would be all right He would
see to it that we got back. On May IL,
the Carinthia, Captain Campbell, sailed
with 1.450 mules on board. On the 18th we
ran into the coast of Haiti"
Pratt told of the efforts to save the ship,
and continues: "~when they gave us up
they had listed us over to As degrees,
Nobody could walk on deck except with
life lines and the mules were umbled down
In heaps. We had to sleep out on this
slanting deck after tying ourselves so we
would not slip down into the scuppers. The
mules were dying by dozens. and the
stencil was something awful. The sailors
refused to work and the cattlemen had to
go among the terrified animals ard haul
out the dead ones. In two days we threw
overheard 200 dead mules The warship
returned on the 9th, but her captain re-
fused to take us off, as he thought the hor-
rible stencil might have bred yellow fever
germs. We finally got natives to come
out in boats AID we began throwing the
live stock overheard. which they would
guide to the shore. We finished the jot
on the 18th. after having lost 500 mules by
uroWnihS we cdtteinen were then sent
ashore. but our filthy condition from hand
ling mules made the authorities herd us
out in an open space surrounded by soldiers
for a time. as II was thought we must
surely breed yellow fever. On the 31st ths
sixty-fve of us were put into three small
sloops and sent TO Aux Cages. Then we
were herded in a vacant house and slert
on the floor. which was covered with yer-
min"
The men complain tina the British and
American consuls neglected them but fin.
ally the latter got them Storage passage
to the United States.