Los Angeles herald., 1906-08-12
Terrors of a
Cattle Steamer

- cattle between this country and Eng
G&2EaJ land depended very largely upon the
Students from the different large col
leges to make up the crews TO take care Of the
animals on the voyage. The University Of Penn
sylvania has for years supplied a great number
Of these men, who thought to make the trip for
lark Sometimes it was a lark but in nine
cases out Of ten they were heartily sick Of the
bargain before they had been many hours at
sea. Unless the weather happened TO be un-
usually proptous the experience was anything
but pleasant one
There are always q number of men in the
crew who make it business Of working on the
cattle ships but they are always assisted by such
inexperienced men as can be picked up, such az
students, who think they are engaging in sum
mer picnic and other young men driven TO des.
peraton for the lack Of other employment. The
green hands are referred TO as "stihs" Their
work Is very trying, and they often do great
work in handling the cattle at sea.
Every day in the year the United Kingdom
consumes nearly 5000 cattle which have been
imported from abroad. In the same space Of
time that country eats $500 foreign sheep and
more than 1000 foreign pigs, to say nothing of
other meat.
Nearly all this meat is brought from four
countries--the United States, the Argentine Re
public Canada. and Australasia.
The most interesting part Of this huge import
trade is without doubt the carriage Of live stock.
York to London in the depths Of winter on a
huge cargo vessel, which carried 900 cattle,
about 300 sheep, and large quantity of pigs.
These were penned on the lower decks, and as
the weather, though cold, was fortunately fairly
fine, the losses were small.
BELLOwING, BLEEDING HEAPS
Yet even so, almost every morning three or
four unfortunate cattle which had been injured
and consequently slaughtered, were slung by
the horns and flung overheard. In bad weather
the losses among live stock on the Atlantic
passage are sometimes very heavy indeed.
Cattle ships roll fearfuly. This is doubt
largely owing to the great weight so near the
top Of the ship, but it is an odd fact that cattle
have the power of making vessel roll even in
calm water. Cattle on board ship are confined
in pens. In the modern first-class cattle carrier
these pens are of stout material, but on some
tramp steamers the timber is much too frail.
Consequently, when a gale comes and the heavy
beasts are flung against the rails, they give way,
and the unhappy creatures, perhaps horribly
wounded by the sharp, splintered ends, are
thrown in believing, bleeding heaps. Then; If
wave breaks over the vessel, comes confusion
worse confounded. The poor brutes, with horns
and legs smashed are swept from side to side
of the streaming, slippery deck. 1t is much
as mans life is worth to venture among the
frenzied, helpless creatures yet the cattle man
is here there, and everywhere, and is often
nobly backed up by the "stifs," as those men
are called who are allowed to work their passage
by attending to the needs of the floating farm
yard.
CATTLE SMELL THE LAND
1t is too dreadful subject to dwell upon, but
that this is no fancy picture can be proved by
actual statistics. One vessel bound from the
Argentine to Liverpool lost 103 cattle out Of
140, another SO cattle out Of 109 and nearly 400
sheep out Of 600. A third vessel landed less
than 100 sheep out of more than TOO.
| Such cases these happily the exception,
and not the rule The Royal Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has done
great deal, and nowadays, unless the weather be
exceptionally bad, the public may rest assured
that cattle suffer very little indeed on the sea
passage. Most of them feed very well, and
drinking water is always plentiful. The modern
cattle boat is so large-some Of them over
10000 tons-that rolling is largely eliminated
and, indeed, the beasts have more to fear from
the heat of summer than from the storms Of
winter.
Two curious facts about the carriage Of live
cattle are worth mentioning One is that they
have peculiar power of dscooring white paint
all over the ship, and the other that they are
able to "smell" land long before 1t is In sight.
REFRIGERATED MEAT
To turn to the importation Of dead meat. As
most readers are aware, it is frozen before being
shipped, is carried in a refrigerator hold, and on
arrival is at once transferred by insulated light
ers to cold storage.
Most of Englands frozen meat-mutton espe-
cially-comes from New Zealand and the Argen-
tine The freezing is done in great chambers
which each hold $4,000 carcasses, and three great
refriaerating engines produce the appalling cold
of 30 degrees below zero, Each carcass, after
being frozen as hard as stone, is wrapped in a
cotton cloth, weighed and tcketed, and trans
ferred to the ship, where they stored in
the coldair chamber, the temperat'lre of which
is kept at about 20 degrees or II degrees Of frost
Remember, these ships have to pass through the
tropics 1t is odd when gasping on the deck
in the Red Sea, in temperature of perhaps 105
degrees in the shade, to think that one might 60
snowballng in the hold just below.
THREE DAYS TO THAW
London's cold storage warehouses viii hold
over two million frozen carcasses. Nelson's
Wharf at Lambeth, is one Of the largest. II Is
six stories high, and If you want to enter you
have to do so by door on the top floor. There
are no doors below, for if there were, everytime
one was opened warm air would get in, and, Of
course, rise to the upper floors. Here the meat
is stored until 1t is needed and then very care
fully "unfrozen." The latter process is a most
important one. It usually takes three whole
days If it Is done too rapidly, the meat is sog-
Nv, wet and nasty, and quite spoilt. On the
other hand, if slowly and carefully carried out,
the thawed meat is left dry and firm, exactly re-
sembling that newly killed.
The enormous proportions Of the frozen meat
industry are really almost miraculous when ono
considers that the first cargo of frozen mutton
came TO England only twenty-six years ago. It
was in 1880 that the Strathleven brought the
first cargo Of 400 carcasses from Melbourne to
London.