Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1918-12-20

men, ana dividing them into three
groups, in charge of himself, the sec
ond foreman and Doc Casey, they went
below. / followed. An awful sight met
my eyes.
The ship was lurching in horrible
manner. All could see was, one
minute pile of kicking horses,
smashed-up planks and the three ne
groes piled up in one corner of the
compartment, and then, with lurch
of the ship, they would slide into the
other. Nothing could be done by US.
It was madness to attempt anything.
The three negroes were dead.
That night and the following day
was perfect hell on the ship for men
and horses. The ship rode through
the squall, and when it became calm
we all got busy. Out of the "a horses
between decks we had to shoot IL ION
account of injuries. Besides the II
3 had died from broken necks. The
4 remaining horses were still alive
but hardly had a square foot of hide
left. They were a pitiful sight.
The next day the three negroes
were buried at sea without word Of
prayer.
For the next couple of days moth
ing of Importance happened.
About four days out of Bordeaux
one of the large steam pipes in the
1ovuor hold hurst ", th;c boI,3 fhorn
were GA horses. The engineer Of
the ship tried to repair the break,
but it was almost worth a mans
life to go down there in that hiss
ing and scalding steam. The cries
of the horses went straight to my
heart. All we could do was to turn
streams. Of cold salt water from three
pairs of hose into the hold, thus try
ing to keep the heat down and save
as many horses as possible.
Why the engineer did not shut off
the steam / don't know. / noted this
fact in my report. After about four
hours the steam was shut off and the
two foremen, Doc Casey and myself,
lOllOWCu ny tWClNC OIHCI lHCut WCht
into the hold. 1 will never forget the
sight as long as live. Nearly every
one Of the horses was dead, and those
which still remained alive had to be
shot. Some of them were practically
boiled alive. The weather was hot,
and 1t was not long before the rotting
bodies Of the horses made the stencil
on board unbearable. We had to get
these bodies out. Long tackles were
rugged up, a chain around the neck Of
a dead horse, and worked the winch.
The bodies were snaked along the
passageways in the hold and up to the
hatch. Some of the bodies would not
hold together, and it was common
sight to see a dead horse suspended
in the air by his hind leg drop sud-
denly into the hold below, leaving his
leg hanging to the tackle.
Every horse sent to France is
branded with different brand. They
have a system of indexing them. AS
each dead horse was snaked to the
upper deck, Doc had t6 stoop over
and make a note of the brand before
the horse was thrown overheard.
AS the dead horses were dropped.
over the side, a resounding splash
could be heard and the water was
churned into a foamy white as the
body momentarily sank from view.
Then the bloated body of the horse
would reappear and disappear in the
wake Of the ship, the seagulls hover
ing and screaming around it.
The grub on that ship was awful,
and a day out of Bordeaux the gang
of horsemen refused to work. The
foreman mustered them on the main
deck, and standing on the bridge let
out about twenty minutes of religion
and advice in their direction. The
whole gang Immediately got religious
and returned to their duties.
/ was heartily sick and disguised
with the rest of the trip, because the
stencil was awful, there being about
twelve dead horses that we could not
get out.
Just outside of the entrance of the
river leading to Bordeaux, small,
rakish boat, flying the tri-color of
France, came ALONGSIDE. We hove to
and up the gangplank came three
French officers. They were closeted
with the captain of the ship and our
foreman, and after about twenty min
utes, left ; and we continued on our
course.
Going up the river in some places
the banks were only about twenty
feet away. We could see the French
women filling their fields. AS we
went by these workers stopped and
waved their hands in the air to us, and
we waved back. 1t was my first sight
of France, and was not in any way
1t lived up to my expec-
tationS.
A little farther up the river we came
to large dock where ships were load
ing and unloading cargoes and thrill
passed through me as / saw my first
batch Of German prisoners at work.
These were immense fellows, nearly
every one being six feet or over. They
were guarded by little French soldiers,
averaging about five feet five inches,