Awaking about four o'clock on the morning of our sailing, we immediately proceeded to don the rough and ready clothes for this occasion. By the time our dress was completed we looked like graduated tramps or some other creatures of the same sort with the degree "Hell from Texas." Brownie with his blue bandanna. Dug with his old football jersey and corduroy trousers, and I with my boots and a sweater which had seen service for several years.
My headgear was most becoming, an old brown felt hat from which all the brim had been torn with the exception of a small part in front which served as a protection for the eyes. Each and every one of us realized that we were booked for a "rough and ready, lookout for number one" trip. We gathered up suit cases and made our way rapidly to the dock where the ship was lying in readiness. Seven o'clock found us safely aboard. After walking around the deck several times in search of an officer, we found the second mate, who, for the asking, readily permitted us to store our suit cases in his cabin. Three hours later we were gliding along the Virginia coast bound due northward, and by twelve o'clock land could no longer be sighted.
Our foreman, that is, the foreman of the cattle squad, Dave Smith, came on deck in the forenoon and informed us that we need not come below till four bells that afternoon, as the other fellows who were experienced cattlemen, would attend to the stalling and roping of the steers, a tough job. At noon our dinner was issued, but having eaten an unusually good breakfast we "really didn't care for anything," especially since the food was not over appetizing. After having examined the food, we pitched it over the side of the boat, telling the second cook that our dinner was enjoyed immensely,—and so it was, I presume, by the fish.
The Shenandoah was some three hundred and sixty feet in length by fifty in breadth. She had two decks, which were respectively the main deck and the cattle deck. The main deck was used for various purposes, the fore part being used as a promenade for the officers and passengers; the rear part was on this trip used as a sheep deck, while in the central part of the deck were the cabins. Directly underneath the main deck was the cattle deck. This is divided up into stalls, and in every stall there were four cattle. The stalls run along the side of the ship parallel to each other, and the intervening space is termed the alley way. This main alley was divided by more cattle stalls in the hatchways, consequently making two alley ways. Underneath the cattle deck in the big holes was stored our cargo, which was principally hay and corn. This being a slow steamer, she made about twelve knots an hour, but during rough weather her speed was diminished by something like five knots.
That afternoon all the cattlemen were ordered up to the steward's room, where we were each issued a blanket, tin cup, plate, knife, fork and spoon. This completed our kit. As for food, we were each issued two pounds of brown sugar and two pounds of margerine; this was supposed to last one week. When eight bells sounded we three went below and there were put to work feeding cattle. First we rolled the bales of hay down the alleyway from one hatchway to another; then, after having cut the wires on the bales, we would shake it apart and scatter the hay along the edges of the stalls in the alley way. When the cattle had eaten about half of the hay we then began to "fork in," that is, to fork the hay out of the alley way into the troughs, and after this was properly done we swept clean the alleys. It was fearfully hot and stifling down there with the cattle; even with nothing on our bodies except armless gymnasium jackets, it was beastly warm. It was not a great while before the ship began to roll and rock, and we soon began to feel a little touch of seasickness, which was brought on so early by the heat and dust in which we were compelled to work. Before the setting of the sun I was leaning over the rail of the ship, deathly sick, and humming in my mind the tune of "Home, Sweet Home."
All the cattlemen are supposed to sleep in the forecastle, situated in the rear end of the ship, on the cattle deck, just over, or, rather, to the left of the stern. This was a dark, damp, forbidding little room, with only a few small portholes to admit the light. It was fitted up with wooden bunks on either side, and in the centre of the room stood a greasy wooden table on which the cattlemen ate. Besides being dark, damp and dingy, it was in the very part of the ship where the rolling was most perceptible, and if we had attempted to sleep there, we would, most assuredly, have had to tie ourselves in for fear of being rolled out of the bunks.
There were seven other cattlemen on the boat, and they did not seem to mind at all where they bunked or ate. We had investigated the forecastle that afternoon and found that we could not endure it. So, when darkness came and we had completed our day's labor, we quietly rolled up in our blankets with the ship's main deck for a mattress and our coats for pillows. It was not the least trouble for us to sleep, for we had slept none the night before, and, besides, we were weary from toil and sick from the sea.
The following morning at a quarter to six I was aroused from my peaceful slumber by Mike, a great big, strapping young Irishman, who was beating on my boot soles with a wooden paddle and bidding us "Git up," as it was time to begin watering the cattle. I was no sooner on my feet when I knew that my seasickness was still with me, nor did I recover from it for several days to come.
We usually finished watering the cattle about seven o'clock. The job of watering is the hardest and most tedious of all. Every head of stock has to be watered from a bucket, placed in the trough.
Each bullock will drink on an average three or four buckets of water every morning, so carrying from one hundred to two hundred buckets of water from a spot some thirty or forty feet away is no snap. Brownie always fed the hay while Dug and I did the watering. In watering one often loses one's temper, for the cattle will sometimes upset the water and, in consequence, drench the tender; and when the water is being placed in the trough they will very often butt over the bucket. After watering, we were always wringing wet, and would have to wait for hours before we could get a chance to lie in the sun and dry our drenched clothes.