HECTIC TRIP.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 203, 28 August 1934, Page 5

HECTIC TRIP.

ZOO LOOSE ON SHIP.

BEARS, TIGERS AND MONKEYS

ART OF PERSUASION

Alongside the Prince's wharf to-day the steamer Fordsdale is just an ordinary ship discharging an. ordinary cargo, but she has a etory of the kind that one does not expect to find outside the realm* of Jiction—a true story of wild animals roaming her decks and of armed officers of the mercantile marine tiger-stalking on a ship in the middle of the Indian Ocean!

It was when the Fordsdale was a unit of the Aberdeen and Commonwealth. Line's' fleet that she sailed, from London for Fremantle with a varied collection of wild animals as unwilling passengers on her broad, flush deok. In one cage there were two bears, in another a fine pair of tigers, in a third two panthers, and in a fourth a enow leopard. To make the ship even more like a floating zoo, there were also on deck a python, an agouti, some Canadian tree bears, a lively family of monkeys, some quail and an assortment of others birds.

If any of the officers had misgivings fls to how their passengers would behave during their long sea voyage, their first fears were early realised, for one night when the Fords'd&le was in the Mediterranean the badgers escaped from their Cage and raided the crate where the quail were housed. In the morning all that remained, of the quail were the feathers. The badgers were still at large, but the ship's company offered up a prayer of thankfulness that it was not the tigers that temporarily had a free Tun of the ship. Bears Start Trouble. During the days that the Fordsdale occupied in steaming from the Mediterranean into the Indian Ocean an unsuccessful badger hunt was staged on the freighter, and a careful watch was kept on the other cages. As the weather became -warmer the fwo bears, which on the early part of the voyage had

appeared almost friendly, showed definite signs of their mounting tempers and continually wrenched at the bars which held them prisoners. At last the beasts' efforts brought success, and, unnoticed by anyone on board, they lumbered out from their small prison. A sailor who was going aft to read the log at eight bells spotted the bears coming towards him, and immediately lost all interest in any everyday information that the log might contain. Wheeling in his tracks, he made a beeline for the bridge to give the alarm to the mate. One of the bears playfully followed the sailor to the foot of the ladder and made as if to climb it, only to change its mind and amble away elsewhere.

A general alarm brought most of the ship's company on deck to watch the bears from a safe distance. All on board realised that the animals would have to be recaptured—but how? The feelings of the men turned to real alarm when they saw the bigger of the bears walk up to the cage holding the tigers and deliberately tear the door from its hinges. With tigers as well as bears, not to mention badgers, at large on the ship, the captain did not hesitate to arm his officers, although it was made clear that bullets should fly only if a real emergency arose.

Cages Wrenched Open. Not content with having the tigers and badgers as their companions, the bears similarly attacked some of the other cages, and an agouti was followed to freedom by the Canadian tree bears and some of the monkeys. Waiting his chance, a member of the crew slipped along to the tigers' cage and threw a large piece of raw meat insddc, and it was this bait that eventually enticed the most dangerous of the beasts back to captivity. Keeping one eye open for a possible attack by the bears, one of the crew nailed up the cage again. With the tigers under control, the ship's company turned their attentions to the other animals. A high barricade hastily constructed by the carpenter kept some of them on the after deck, and one by one they were got back to their cages. Onei of the bears which had refused to have its wanderings restricted was lassooed, but the animal easily broke free when it decided to investigate a dish which it noticed the cook was carrying. Again the lassoo was tried, and this time it was successful, the lariat being made fast round a winch.

With the- Cangerous animals again in captivity, the Forsdale's company act about the task of recapturing the other escapees more happily. Some of the monkeys, it was discovered, had amused themselves by raiding one of the bird cages and killing the occupants. After several days the badgers and all the monkeys except one were got back into their cages, the animals discovering that necessary food was not to be found anywhere except where a wire door was •waiting to shut down on them.

I xong Chase for Monkey. With only a single monkey at large most of the crew ceased to worry about their furred passengers, especially as every precaution had been taken to guard against another "break." The captain, however, made it clear tha,t the outlaw monkey had to be in a cage by the time the Fordsdale reached Australia, and all manner of traps were set for it without success. On one occasion it was cornered in the galley, only to skip out on to the deck again by leaping on to the shoulders of its pursuers. Eventually the animal was isolated on the foremast and after much trouble was j brought to the deck by one of the junior [officers. Only when this animal, the hast of the escapees, had been safely caged was the skipper satisfied. When the Fordsdale reached Australia the comedy which might have been a tragedy received wild publicity, even though one of the ship's officers attempted to make little of the incidents by telling an inquisitive pressman that "a few of the animals got loose and had to be recaptured." To-day the ship is manned by new officers and a new crew, and any version they give of the affair is merely hearsay. One engineer alone who was in the ship when the animals took control remains on board, and he is not prepared to let his memory go back to the time when tigers and bears roamed the decks and Iwhen monkeys chattered and swung by their tails from the rigging. Perhaps to the , engineer the sooner the incidents of that hectic trip are forgotten the better.

There is an old nursery rhyme which starts off—

"Have you heard of the animals' trip, to sea? What, never? Then come and listen to me."

One imagines that the old rhyme would not have been popular on board the Fordsdale on a certain day a few years ago, when she dropped anchor in the harfeour at Fremantle.