Does anyone know the specifics about how horses were transported on ocean voyages? It seems like a ship would be less than ideal environment for a horse, especially the kind of ships used in pre-modern times. How did they board the horses during long voyages? I assume they built some kind of stalls in the hold of the ship; how many horses could one of these hold? I'd think not very many. How did they manage to keep enough food and water for the horses on board and still have space for the men, arms, equipment, provisions and everything else that the crew would need?

The conditions below ship were bad enough for the humans; I can't imagine that the horses had an easy time of it, being tossed around by waves constantly, having their balance constantly changing, having to stay in cramped conditions without being able to run around and exercise, etc. The horses must have been in poor shape mentally when they arrived at their destination, after this trauma, and very sub-optimal for any kind of military use. How long did it take them to adjust to being back on land?

Does anyone know about this? Thanks.

Well, I don't know much on the subject, though I've heard of horses being transported on deck rather than in the hold. Reminded me of the Bayeux Tapestry, which portrays the horses up top (I don't think those ships had much in the shape of holds, so it's not like they had a choice). See the picture below. Looks rather crowded.



I labeled the panels in order of appearence. 1. shows the horses on the journey, 2 shows them being unloaded, while 3 shows horses later in the campaign. I noticed that the horses shown being unloaded and ridden right after landing look kind of tired and are holding their heads out forward and have their mouths open. Compare that to picture 3, where the horses hold their heads in. Maybe 2 is portraying their poor health after the voyage...

The transportation of horses on ships was a long standing problem. It was apparently solved during the crusades, buy putting straps under the horses chest and abdoment, preventing them from moving about or falling over...

You might want to read this post over at Armour Archive. That terrible landing scene in the Russel Crowe Robin Hood movie may not be as far fetched as assumed. Though the craft would not have looked like WWII landing craft in that movie, the possibility of ships having doors to facilitate deployment of horses may not be that far off. Something to look into IMHO.

Plenty of information about this in source material for the Fourth Crusade. The Venetians built and equipped ships specifically for this purpose.
Phil

I actually might have a good answer on this one. When I was doing my readings of local manuscripts in Southampton it came up as did it appear in several royal accounts, the close and patent rolls.

The long and short of it was the ships were basically the standard large clinker built barges in use during the High and Late Medieval period. These ships simply had hurdles attached to limit areas for horses and have a place to tie them. They also had a type of plank used for getting them in and out of the boat which appears to be different from those that people used as on one account I have they are specifically mentioned as being for horses, seemingly they have sides of some nature. I am guessing this is all below deck but have no idea in truth. Having them all tied atop deck would make the day to day running of the ship hard.

I was going to write up something on the many uses of medieval ships Eniglish kings came up with but have not had the time yet.

RPM

Here is an illustration showing how horses were transported aboard ship. It is from AZTECS & Conquistadores - The Spanish Invasion & the Collapse of the Aztec Empire. There is the notation - Weiditz 1927 - with the illustration. I apologize for the poor quality of my photo.