Carriage of livestock by sea

[Neville Roberts]

I remember on the Manistee, fyfes boat to Jamacia that we carried 2 prize bulls for Errol Flynns estate there his Mom & Dad came down too the ship to check them out .

[John Callon]

We carried 3000 live sheep from Fremantle to Jurong a 6 day passage approx. On the voyage we had sheep drovers who travelled with us to look after the animals i.e. feed and water them and clean out the pens and as a result none of the ships crew had anything to do with them - apart from putting up with the smell.

Rgds
John

[English Margaret]

hi john. on ucl we used to carry passengers dog on the poop deck next to the spud locker. some of the castle boats were put on the mecca run, taking cattle, oops ******s to mecca and other holy places. i believe there was an actual rating of farmer in the MN for the purpose of looking after the transport of cattle etc.

the poop deck sounds apt, did you carry a scoop as well

[Duke Drennan]

Carried about 6 or 8 polo horses back from B.A. to Liverpool on L&H's Defoe.

[Lou Barron]

Wish they would ship out the race horses thats the ones i back

[happy daze john in oz]

The Union Castle Mail ships had kennels and used to carry quite a few dogs to South Africa , They were walked and fed well . The Steward used to get a little dropsy to make sure the prize pooch only got the best chicken etc . I think it was a good earner for the steward who ran it . Carried Elephants and Water Buffallo once with an African Handler , the majority of the crew lived aft , the Animals were caged by No4 hatch aft of midships , so the smell used to fill the accomodation . How King Line won friends and influenced people !

Yes Rob, and some of the animals aboard ate in the tourist dinning saloon.