CHAPTER VI.
LIFE ABOARD A TROOP SHIP.
Life aboard a troop ship is not a round of pleasure at the best. Long tales of woe, regarding the trials and hardships upon transports of various infantry commands, quickly found their way into print within a few weeks after active war operations commenced. Not one word, however, regarding the discomforts of the City Troop on the trip to Puerto Rico was written. Yet, if existence upon a transport ship, crowded with men is disagreeable, what would the complaining infantrymen have said had they found themselves in the Troop's plight, on a vessel containing more animals than men.
Truly discouraging was the situation in which the cavalrymen were placed. Their hammocks were swung between decks, and but eighteen inches were allowed between the hammock of each man and the hammocks above and on each side of him. Two feet is the regulation distance in the navy, but circumstances alter cases, and what might be a fair allowance on a carefully kept, well-ventilated war vessel, became a distinct hardship aboard the "Massachusetts." Especially was this the case where several of the tall, broad-shouldered men found their hammocks adjoining one another—for the men's bodies touched at all times, and bumped together vigorously at every lurch of the vessel.
The transport upon which the Troopers found themselves had been built to carry about four hundred horses and an ordinary crew, yet when pressed into government service seven hundred men and fourteen hundred horses and mules were considered about her proper capacity. When the Troopers first boarded the vessel their bundles of clothing and equipments were scattered about in great confusion, and a good part of the first day was spent by the men in collecting their belongings and bringing them into some sort of order.
The weather during the first day at sea was exceedingly hot, although fairly pleasant until toward evening, when the wind began to show itself and the sky became cloudy. A majority of the men prepared to sleep upon deck, but as the vessel came off Cape Hatteras about midnight she struck a regular squall. The air became cold, the "Massachusetts" began to pitch about violently and then rain came rushing down in great volumes, driving the men below in a hurry. There they found many of their fellow passengers with their dreams of glory swallowed up in seasickness. The horses, too, succumbed to the complaint in large numbers, and required much care.
Aboard the "Massachusetts" there were, in all, seven hundred horses and a like number of mules. Hundreds of the mules were fastened just below the deck to which the Troopers had been driven by the squall, while above could be heard the constant stamping of horses. Between these two layers of animals the cavalrymen passed a restless night. But if their first attempt at sleep was disturbed, the conditions prevailing the second night can better be imagined than described. Despite the best efforts to keep the quarters of the animals clean, the odor which arose from the hundreds of horses and mules was sickening, and a majority of the Philadelphia men found sleeping in the hammocks impossible.
Early the next morning Captain Groome took the matter in hand, and secured permission for his men to sleep upon the baled hay, which was piled high on the main deck. There, under the stars, swept by refreshing sea breezes, the Troopers slept well—if not comfortably—the remaining nights aboard. Special sentries were appointed to see that no tired Trooper rolled from his hay mattress into the sea.
But the greatest hardship of the voyage to Puerto Rico was the lack of drinking water. Dirty, yellowish fluid was all that could be had. This would not have troubled the men a particle had it been cool enough to be refreshing. But the water was warm; sometimes it was positively hot, and always insipid and filthy looking. A skirmish by the commissary brought to light a case of beer, although there was no ice to make it palatable. The beer lasted but a day, and to keep alive the water had to be accepted and made the best of. Worse came to worst on Sunday. The pumps of the "Massachusetts" broke down, and the Troopers were obliged to go into the hold of the offensively fragrant vessel and bring up water bucketful by bucketful for the animals under their charge.
GLIMPSE INTO A TROOP SHIP.
Sergeant Martin and Corporal Wagner, stripped to the waist, were at the bottom of what looked like a deep well. The atmosphere was stifling, and in order to enable the men at the bottom to stand the heat, their comrades kept pouring water down upon their heads and bodies. As fast as pails could be filled from the bottom they were passed up along a long line of men composed of details from the various commands aboard.
It was exhausting labor, but of all the men on board the City Troopers stood the work best. The water thus brought up was of a kind absolutely dangerous for a human being to drink, and all through the day's trying struggle the Troopers silently endured the added pangs of thirst. There was more real suffering for twenty-four hours than any man in the Troop will admit, but when the pumps resumed operations in the morning, the thankful air with which the formerly despised yellowish warm water was accepted spoke volumes.
The days passed along slowly. No extremely rough weather was encountered, but on several occasions the old transport reeled sufficiently to send a few of the Troopers to their hammocks with slight attacks of mal de mer.
The motion of the vessel was sufficient, however, to completely disarrange each night the outfit of the Troopers, and it was their duty each morning to gather together their equipments for inspection, the same as though they were in camp. This constant readiness was in marked contrast with the arrangements among other commands aboard.
Many of the Troopers will never forget the first time the alarm of fire was given aboard the ship. It was the third morning out that a guard discovered smoke slowly curling from between the crevices of the baled hay piled high on deck. The guard was startled, and his call for the corporal and statement of the discovery of the fire was given in a loud tone, which instantly caused the alarm to spread throughout the ship. It was no pleasant thought for the men, who knew so well the inflammable nature of the cargo and the crowded condition aboard, and there was a rush for the point from which the alarm had come. Fortunately the blaze was a trivial affair easily extinguished, and the excitement was speedily at an end. Three other times, however, during the trip the same alarm was given, but the careful watch kept prevented the fire, in a single instance, from gaining any headway.
Although the "Massachusetts" was supposed to be one of the fastest transports, she found the entire flotilla, which had left Newport News about the same time she did, awaiting her arrival off Guayama. A despatch boat came puffing down to meet her, flying the signal, "Follow me," and Troopers in the bow saw a man armed with a megaphone mount the bridge of the despatch boat and shout: "'The Massachusetts' will lead the way, landing at Ponce."
These instructions as to the exact landing place were somewhat contrary to those before given Captain Pitcher, who was in charge of the transport, so he shouted back, "By whose authority do you give those orders?" and the reply promptly came, "By the authority of Major General Nelson A. Miles, commanding."
This was at three o'clock, and the "Massachusetts" at once went ahead. At 4.30 the harbor of Ponce was sighted, and several of the Philadelphia cavalrymen in the bow saw that the transport was steering directly into shoal water, at the bottom of which a coral reef could be plainly seen. They shouted to the man at the wheel, but too late—the great transport drove bow on into the reef, and at last, on the afternoon of August 4th, the Troopers were upon hostile soil, hard and fast.
Instantly upon the stoppage of the "Massachusetts," a period of suffering began for the Troopers, in comparison with which all former experiences went as nothing. Deprived of all breeze, exposed to a torrid sun, half stifled by the fumes from the hundreds of horses and mules aboard, without water, the situation was well nigh unbearable. Up to the moment of grounding not an animal aboard had died. Within two hours after the motion of the vessel had stopped three horses perished, and two more died before they could be taken off. Fortunately none of these belonged to City Troopers. This suffering among the animals shows slightly what the men had to contend with.
CATHEDRAL VIRGIN DEL CARMEN.
BIVOUAC OUTSIDE CATHEDRAL VIRGIN DEL CARMEN.
Captain Groome secured permission to send Lieutenant Browning ashore to select a camp site, and report. He made quick work of it, choosing a spot beside the Cathedral de la Carmen, and returning with an order from General Miles that the First Troop Philadelphia City Cavalry, should land at once. This order amazed the New York cavalrymen, who had been heard to boast frequently that they would surely be given the preference in all military arrangements.
The orders were received with great joy by the Philadelphians, who were ready to disbark in short order, owing to the constant readiness in which they had kept. A rope tied about their outfit was all that was necessary, and the men were only too eager to leave the grounded vessel and its disagreeable quarters.
The Troopers were rescued by the little lighter "Whitney," sent by General Miles to bring the Philadelphia men ashore. As soon as the Troopers reached land themselves they set to work to bring their horses off the transport. The air was full of rumors that the cavalry were needed in a hurry for active service, and the men went at the task of unshipping horses with a will. Some amusing attempts at interference on the part of the men of C Troop, Brooklyn, were simply ignored.
At three o'clock the next morning sixty-one of the one hundred and seven horses belonging to the Troop had been landed. The men not on duty had gone into the camp selected by Lieutenant Browning the day before, on the flagstones outside of the little cathedral. All day rain came down in torrents, introducing the Troopers to the duckings which were to be their lot several times each day during their stay upon the island.
BRINGING THE HORSES ASHORE AT PONCE.