Otago pack saddle

The Otago pack saddle, later known as the British universal pack saddle, is a rideable pack saddle devised by Harvey Spiller in Otago, New Zealand, in 1863, to prevent ruinous injuries to horses carrying heavy loads. It was improved and adopted for military use by the Commissariat Transport Corps during the New Zealand wars of 1863–1867 and the Abyssinian expedition of 1867–1868, to become a preferred military general use type also favoured by expeditioners. Apart from horses, it worked well on mules and bullocks when adapted to them.

Description To spread the load weight on the animal's back and sides, the pack saddle is made up of two large cushioning pads, each fixed to a side bar bridged from one to the other, over the animal, by metal arches located at the pommel and cantle of the seat. The saddle is held in place on the animal by breastplate, breeching and two girths. For ease of loading and unloading, large metal hooks on the arches secure the ropes or straps holding the load. Being rideable to a certain extent, stirrups can be attached. The saddle weighed 25–27 lb (11.34–12.25 kg) stripped, and often as much as 43 lb (19.5 kg). By 1870, a variation, the Royal Carriage Department pattern, had been devised for hospital and ambulance purposes in carrying field panniers, letters and cacolets, composed of breeching, breast collar, crupper with strap, two web girths, a pair of saddle panels, four breeching or breast straps, two crupper straps and a wantie, and weighed 63 lbs (28.6 kg)

Origin and development

Otago gold rush Harvey Spiller, born at Kensington on 17 November 1840, had served as a 2nd lieutenant of the newly formed Northumberland Artillery from June 1859. Following the death of his father, Lieutenant Colonel George Spiller, RA, in 1861, he and his brother had shipped out from Plymouth, Devon, for New Zealand, arriving at Port Chalmers on the Black Swan amid the Otago gold rush in June 1862. Spiller recalled in 1869:

I happened during the year 1863 to be living many miles from up the country in Otago, and was called on to do a large amount of packing. The saddles which I used for the purpose were the common Cape pattern, precisely similar to those supplied from the stores department to the imperial troops. The want of ventilation and the constant friction with the closing of the pads from the weight of the load upon the horses' withers and the ridge of the back speedily rendered every animal I had useless. I tried the riding saddle, making additions to it and alterations as I found necessary from time to time to effect the object I had in view. The idea upon which I worked was suggested to me by the principle adopted in the knapsack invented by my late father, Colonel Spiller, of the Royal Artillery, in 1861. I worked at it for a considerable time, and incurred no small expense, until I realised my conception of what a pack saddle ought to be, and which I found, I am glad to say, work perfectly in every particular, whether horses or bullocks were employed.

New Zealand campaigns During the Waikato campaign, Spiller took a commission as a lieutenant of the 3rd Waikato Regiment, Colonial Militia, from 19 October 1863 and was later attached to the Commissariat Transport Corps under Assistant Commissary General James Bailey. Bailey had arrived in New Zealand in 1861, following the outbreak of the Taranaki war in 1860. He had joined the Imperial Service in 1848, served the Board of Works in Ireland to 1851, Commissariat at the Cape of Good Hope to 1854, as Deputy Assistant Commissary General in Turkey and Crimea in 1854–1856, present at the battle of Alma and siege of Sebastopol, in Bermuda for three years and northern China for over a year. By July 1861 he'd had put together the Commissariat Transport Corps (CTC), at Penrose Camp on the Great South Road, Auckland. CTC men were drawn from British troops and the colonial militia. One hundred packhorses were ordered from Sydney, 85 pack and ambulance horses were purchased in Auckland along with 30 double-draught animals and 450 pack saddles. Bullocks were purchased in Taranaki and Auckland. When Spiller joined the CTC in 1863–64, the Waikato campaign had been underway since July 1863. The CTC had been repairing existing bullock, horse and artillery pattern pack saddles, and followed on with a call for the supply of new government issue Cape pack saddles—100 in August and 150 in November. Though mule sized, the Cape pack saddles were used on the horses with the effect of galling their backs and crippling CTC efficacy. Spiller, employed in the field in the Waikato and at Tauranga, noted:

The destruction of the pack animals from the use of the Government pack saddle was a constant theme of animadversion. I spoke of my invention to the Director of Transport, Commissary-General Baily, and he requested me to get a saddle made after my plan, which I did at my own expense, and which upon trial was entirely approved of, and obtained the favourable notice of General Sir D. Cameron, K.C.B.; General Sir T. Chute, K.C.B.; Colonel O'Brian, Commanding Military Train; Colonel Gamble, Quartermaster-General; Colonel Moule, Royal Engineers; Commissary-General Jones, Commissary-General Baily, Major Baker, Assistant Adjutant-General; Captain H. Hill, aide-de-camp; Major the Hon. F. Le P. Trench, 40th Regiment; Captain Tigh, who commanded my own division of Transport—all or any of whom could corroborate the truth of my statement and substantiate the justice of my claim.

Trials of Spiller's pack saddle proved it to be a vast improvement on existing patterns and, accordingly, Lieutenant General Duncan Cameron accepted it for use in the campaign. Manufactured in quantity by J & A Wiseman, saddle, collar and harness manufacturers of Queen Street, Auckland, branded "CTC" and settled into service on the transport network, they played their part well throughout the campaign. Deputy Commissary General Edward Strickland, stationed at Taranaki, commented to Commissary General Humphrey Stanley Jones in 1865:

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