Seagoing Cowboys | Cowboy Stories

Between 1945 to 1947, the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and the
Brethren Service Committee of the Church of the Brethren sent over 7,000 men and boys ages
16 to 72 across the oceans to deliver livestock to war-torn countries. These "seagoing cowboys"
made about 360 trips on 73 different ships. Each cowboy's story is unique to his experience,
influenced by time of year and weather, type of ship, captain's attitude, make up of the cowboy
crew, type of cargo, port of departure, port of call, length of time in port, etc.

The seagoing cowboys traveled mostly to Poland, Italy, Greece, and Germany*, with a few trips
to China, Belgium, and Djibouti. They delivered mostly horses, heifers, and mules, along with
some chicks, rabbits, and goats - over 300,000 animals by the end of the program.

After UNRRA disbanded in 1947, the Brethren Service Committee's Heifer Project (now today's
Heifer International) continued, using both men and women as cowboys and cowgirls.
Shipments of animals by air were added.

A sampling of cowboy stories follows here. Each story is one piece of a larger history; readers
should not generalize facts from these stories. As is often the case with firsthand accounts (some
written many years after the experience), they may contain factual errors, and each story
should be read simply to get a picture of the overall seagoing cowboy experience.

Enjoy!

*Animals delivered to ports in Germany were transported by land to Czechoslovakia, as Germany was
an occupied nation and therefore was not eligible for UNRRA goods.