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.