Transport service. to be the case; for, when a temporary Transport Board was appointed, various vessels were discharged, and the rates of freight for sailing ships, which had averaged 1l. 7s. 7d. per ton, fell to 15s. 10d. per ton. Indeed, there can be no doubt that, had there been a well-organised board in operation when war was declared, the sea transport service, which cost this country 15,000,000l. sterling during that brief and unhappy war, would have been far more efficiently conducted for two-thirds that amount.[1]
- [Footnote: One day, when I had occasion to visit a transport which lay at
Woolwich, two gentlemen, when I stepped on board, were wrangling over the main hatchway. One was from the Ordnance, the other was evidently in charge of certain medical stores which, with piles of shot and shell, lay on the wharf ready for shipment. The shot and shell representative insisted on having his goods in the centre compartment of the vessel because they were heavy; the other gentleman was as determined to have his physic stored in the same division of the ship because it was perishable. Each would have his own way; and, as neither would give way, after an hour's altercation, they, to the amazement and horror of the mate of the ship, came to a compromise by ordering the stores of both departments to be stowed in this one favourite position! It is needless to state the result; I may just, however, say that when the ship arrived at the Crimea it was found that the shot and shell had played sad havoc with the medicine cases, and that the floor of her centre compartment was strewed with fragments of fragile cases, demolished physic bottles, and countless numbers of squashed pill-boxes.]*
- ↑ When the war ceased, the Transport Board was abolished, and the mode of conducting this important branch of the public service reverted pretty much to what it had been previously. The Admiralty found ships for the transport of troops at home and to our colonies abroad, but a board at the India Office engaged vessels for all the troops and stores to and from our possessions in the East, while other departments had their own separate shipping offices; all of which, when vessels were in demand, were bidding against each other, and also against another department of the government, the Emigration Office. The rates of freight were, of course, materially enhanced by this unnecessary competition; and there would have been the same sad story to tell as in the case of the Crimea, had we been unfortunately involved in another war. Unable to obtain the necessary reform by
