3-053-553 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Life on board a troop-ship: washing the decks, 1873. 'The experiences of soldiering in the British Army differ from those of every foreign military service. Though enlisted in her Majesty's land service, it is the lot of almost every private or non-commissioned officer in a regiment of the Line or in the Royal Artillery to pass many weeks or months in long sea voyages, either to and from India, or between this country and the seat of a distant war...During the first days of the voyage, however, especially with troops who have not been at sea on any former occasion, the soldier finds himself rather puzzled by the novel conditions of his daily life, which cannot pursue exactly the same routine as in the barrack-yard on shore. The officers, indeed, knowing that idleness would do their men no good, will set and keep them to such employments as they are fit to share in the work of the ship. They help to swab and scrub the decks, by the aid of a hose, early in the morning of each day...Our Illustrations of these incidents are from sketches by Lieutenant W. O. Carlile, R.A.'. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.