An escape from a French prison
The following story is based upon a real life account written by Forrest Frank based upon a story by Captain John Helm Gibson. These appeared in the Scarborough Daily Post in 1920 as part of the 'Sea Dogs' stories by Forrest Frank.
Inspected by the king. It was whilst I was in Hungcraft that I was sent for by the Principal Naval Transport Officer and informed - after wondering on the way there what the trouble was - that my vessel had been selected for inspection by the King on the following day. I was told to keep the matter secret and proceed with my loading in the usual way, and received precise information that I was to be at the head of the gangway with my officers in full uniform at a given signal to receive His Majesty on board, and that I was to shake hands with him when he extended his hand to me. When the morrow came we carried on loading war material and got four hundred of the five hundred horse we were to take on board. The last hundred was purposely kept back by the Transport Officer to await the King's arrival to show him how expeditiously the work was carried out. They were all heavy gun horses. At the time appointed the King walked down the dock attended by a large retinue of naval and military officers of high rank, and when he came up our gangway extended his hand and shook mine warmly, and talked to me like one plain man to another, putting several questions to me, and showing that he was evidently interested in all about him: making a tour of the ship, in which I had to accompany him. Then we went back to the head of the gangway, where I had to stand by with him to witness the embarkation of the hundred horses.
We had had, as usually was the case in shipping horses, no difficulty in getting the first 400 on board, but whether it was the display of uniforms or no I cannot say, but we could not get one of the last hundred horses to take the gangway. First one was tried then another but all showed the same stubborn resistance; different men took turns in trying to induce them but without avail; breaching was tried but they threw themselves down and kicked and did everything but what was wanted. The King himself tried one mare and tried to coak her calling her name "Agnes, Agnes, now up girl," but it was no go, and even at the behest of a King she refused to budge. I could see the Principal Transport Officer nearly biting his tongue off and I explained to the King that the behaviour of the horses was quite unprecedented and that we had had no difficulty with the 400 we already had on board. It was a proper sell and made us look like so many d*** fools. The King only laughed and said he quite understood , but as he had to visit a hospital ship he had to leave us within half an hour of coming on board and so had to depart without seeing a single horse shipped. After His Majesty left no difficulty was experienced and we got the hundred on board as easy as winking; they simply walked along the gangway. This was on a beautiful summers day in 1916
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