LAMB GOES TO SEA

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 56, Issue 80, 16 January 1936, Page 2

LAMB GOES TO SEA

SAILORS 00 CARE. An old Greek superstition, which sailors still respect, was recently responsible for the saving of a lamb's life and for the dismissal of a charge against the captain of the s.s. Nereus. The superstition held by the Greeks was that anything taken aliye from the sea should not be allowed to perish. The charge against Captain Elias Fonaris was that he had brought into the Port of London a sheep which had been on board liih ship while in port in a country prohibited under the Diseases of Animals and the Animals Importation Acts. The little story unfolded at the hearing of the case in an English court proved that sailors certainly do care, where ship's pets are concerned. The lamb was given to the master of the Nereus while lying in an Argentine port by the officers of a sister ship. On the voyage from Buenos Aires to England the lamb was kicked overboard by a cow. Captain Fonaris at once put his ship about and after two hours' searching found the lamb. The ship's pet was so exhausted that its life was despaired of for three days, but by tender care and nursing, the crew brought it back to health. The prosecution based the charge against the captain on the ground that foot-and-mouth disease was rife in Argentine and virtually no measures were being taken to stamp it out. Tins particular sheep was quite healthy but it mio-ht possibly be a carrier of the virus and the crew should have destroyed it. Instead of doing so, they seemed to have conceived an affection for the lamb! "Oh dear! It had a very narrow escape as it was!" .remarked the magistrate. ' , ... T "Although I must plead guilty, _ I feel that this is a case where justice can be tempered with mercy," said counsel for Captain Fonaris, defending tho case on the instruction of the R.S.P.C..A. He said the captain was prepared to take the lamb back to Buenos Aires and would be leaving in a few days. There had been a strong feeling among the crew of the Nereus that the lamb should not be destroyed. It was an old Greek superstition that what was taken alive from "the sea should not be allowed to perish." "There evidently might have been serious consequences if the captain had executed this waif from the sea," said the magistrate. Counsel for the captain: "feo strong is the feeling that the crew has offered to indemnify the captain is case of a fine." ' The magistrate: There need arise no question of a fine. The case will be dismissed under the First Offenders And the lamb is now on its way back to Buenos Aires.