On Friday, October 20, the first batch of troops, 5,000 strong, embarked at Southampton in four steamers; on the 21st, 5,615 were shipped; on the 22nd, 4,864; and on the 23rd, 6,335, making a total in four days of over 21,000 men. The troops were of splendid physique, a large proportion being reservists; their conduct was sober, steady, and irreproachable. As for the embarkation, it was conducted in every case with machine-like order and precision. "It was almost automatic," says an eye-witness; "no one gave orders; there was not the slightest fuss or flurry. Every one in every rank knew exactly what he had to do." As the ships one by one cast loose there was a roar of cheering from their decks and from the shore. Thus did the soldiers of the Queen set out upon that voyage from which, alas! too many of them were never to return.
The supplies carried on board each ship had to be very considerable in view of the length of the voyages. Taking, as an example, the Sumatra, which conveyed 1,200 men to the Cape; she was furnished with 6,000 lb. of preserved meat, 14 tierces of salt beef, 21 barrels of pork, 2,500 lb. of preserved potatoes, 400 lb. of compressed vegetables, 670 lb. of salt, 100 lb. of mustard, 60 lb. of pepper, 150 gallons of vinegar, 100 lb. of pickles, 1,250 lb. of rice, 1,300 lb. of split peas, 6,000 lb. of sugar, 140 barrels of flour, 336 lb. of suet, 900 lb. of raisins, 1,300 lb. of coffee, 113 lb. of chocolate, 1,300 lb. of treacle, 4,520 lb. of oatmeal, and 10,800 lb. of biscuit. These were the government supplies to be issued free as rations to the men.
E. M. Rigg.]
In addition the canteen laid in stores of corned beef, lunch biscuits, ginger-nuts, bloater-paste, brawn, butter, cheese, tinned haddocks, herrings, lobsters, mackerel, jam and marmalade, sauces, sausages, potted meats, condensed milk, blacking, laces, soap, tobacco, and other necessaries and luxuries. These the soldiers would have to purchase out of their none too generous pay. Though from the above list it might seem that nothing was wanting, there were complaints, not without foundation, of both the quality and the quantity of the food in some of the ships. The Arawa's meat was discovered, on inspection just before she left, to be bad and had to be renewed.
There were one or two other mischances, as might indeed be expected in an enterprise of such magnitude. The Rapidan from Liverpool with remounts on board encountered very heavy weather in the Irish Channel, and had to put back with heavy loss in horses. The Manchester Port had shipped some compressed forage which, being damp, heated on board, and detained her till it could be removed.
[Oct.-Nov. 1899.
The total tonnage engaged in the movement of the Army Corps, its supplies, and its transport was about 600,000, exclusive of vessels chartered for the divisions which followed later. Yet so vast were the shipping resources of England that the withdrawal of this great number of steamers from the mercantile marine only slightly affected the cost of freight.
