Naval transportation of horses:How difficult was it?

[Cipher]

I've never read about how exactly the people in antiquity managed transported a large number of horses by ships.

AFAIK horses are really sensitive in a confined environment, and even a 1 day trip on a air plane can cause quite a lot of stresses.
And ships would be much more confined and more shaky than a air plane, and since horse eats and drinks much more than a human feeding them would be difficult too.
Shipping them across from, say Italy to Sicily shouldn't be much problem but how did they managed to transport a large number of horses in a voyage that took days/weeks?

[Praefectusclassis]

Hi Ed,
Not much is known, really. There are the famous examples of old triremes converted to horse transports and quite a few depictions of horses being carried on board all manner of sailing vessels.
It is clear that they did suffer from such trips. It is mentioned at least once in the (ps.Caesarian) African War.

[Jona Lendering]

It is interesting to note that the Athenians ran into trouble on Sicily because they had insufficient cavalry. I think transport was difficult.

[Eleatic Guest]

Did the Persians (that is their Greek and Phoenician subjects) transport horses on their warships during their Greece campaigns between 492 and 465 BC?

If not, then the Athenian horse transports mentioned by Thukydides may even represent the first such instances in naval history, if I am not mistaken.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

I would imagine the cavelry traveled by the land route, IIFC.

The navey was in a supporting role, at least for most of the campaign?
They crossed the Hellespont on a pontoon bridge. hock: hock:

[Jona Lendering]

Did the Persians (that is their Greek and Phoenician subjects) transport horses on their warships during their Greece campaigns between 492 and 465 BC?

At Marathon, the Persians employed cavalry, which must have come by boat. The Assyrian word for transport ship, magurgurru (incorrectly named gurgurru by Casson, who probably wanted to link it to the Greek kerkyros) usually implies animal transport. For instance, gurgurru is also used to describe the Ark in all Mesopotamian Flood epics - with a lot of animals aboard.

[Andrew Brozyna]

There is alot of information on the way horses were shipped on 18th and 19th century European vessels. I believe harnesses were involved to keep the horses off their feet. That's not to say the ancients had the same techniques, but it would be an interesting read.

[Sean Manning]

IIRC, the Byzantines had properly designed horse transports. In Bernard Bachrach's (?) opinion, the Normans borrowed the idea in times for Hastings, although he is rather determined to prove that early medieval armies were similar to Roman ones. There are a lot of issues involved, like how to get the horses on and off and how to keep them safe from each other and collisions with the ship. We really don't know much about how the ancients solved these problems, though, except that the Athenians used gutted triremes.

[praetor0708]

If you think transporting horses is difficult, how about war elephants?

[Jona Lendering]

If you think transporting horses is difficult, how about war elephants?

It's possible, as Hannibal showed at the Rhone, but Livy's account shows how difficult it was.

@praetor0708: Welcome on RAT; it is customary to use your real name (see Forum Rules), which is probably one of the main reasons why this forum remains a good one, without anonymous ranting etc.

[Bran ap Maclou]

The Rhône, before it was channelled in 1946 was an "amazonian" river type. That means that the Rhône was sometimes a wide powerful river but in some places all along the valley the river divides into several parts (arms) called "lônes", with small ponds or lakes, half flooded forests, sand or stone banks and islands and ... fords. Some local guides or good scouts should have been able to find some fords quite easily.

So As a child of the Rhône valley, I long time looked after the path of Hannibal's elephants but we have not a single clue AFAIK. Some heel bones finally revealed Mammoths in Soyons and some fossil paths in the alpens were finally dinosaurs. But the Rhône finish into a delta in Camargue. A path is also possible through the swamps perhaps with some short cruises into drafts or bridges. So sorry for the example of the rhône. I guess however that cruising with elephants into the boats through Herakles' pilars (Gibraltar) have been another kind of sport IMO.

To ship horses safely, you can train them (but you can also drug them). In the swamps of Poitou in western France, the farmers still ship cows, goats sheep and horses into small flat bottom small boats. Ok, that's on quiet waters. Horses used to shift from a pasture to another stay quiet but sometimes some foals or coward horses finish the trip by swimming. It's better for everyone to let the horse swim than to let them panick on board
http://www.hippoplus.com/llse/CREL/Dive ... barque.jpg


Bye

Greg

[Cipher]

Thanks everyone.
So it seems it was indeed difficult.