3-008-365 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Reinforcements for Canada: shipping horses on board the Calcutta at Woolwich by the hydraulic crane, 1862. 'Although there is now every reason to hope - if not, indeed, a full assurance - that the cloud which a short time ago gathered so darkly between this country and the Federal States of America has been entirely dissipated, still it is most gratifying to look back at the prompt action of our Government, and the zeal shown by all the officials engaged in carrying out their plans on that occasion...[Engraving of one of] the most picturesque scenes in connection with the shipment of troops and munitions of war to Canada...the shipping of the horses belonging to the H Battery of the fourth brigade of the Royal Artillery...The horses, forty-six in number, were shipped from the Arsenal Pier by the great hydraulic crane. The mode of doing it was very simple. They were taken alongside the crane, and a piece of hammock-cloth was passed under their bellies and made fast to the cranehook; the word was given and off they went, first a short distance upward, then round over the deck, on which they were quickly and easily lowered. They were then put into their berths - good-sized, padded boxes, secured for the voyage'. From "Illustrated London News", 1862.