SUAVE STOWAWAY

Greymouth Evening Star, 11 June 1932, Page 12

SUAVE STOWAWAY

POSED AS GRAND DUKE.

How a suave young stowaway fooled wealthy passengers in the He de Franco for four days became known when the French liner berthed at New York recently, and the offender was trundled off to the immigration sta!on on Ellis Island, in irons, is narrated 'n an English newspaper. By night the young man slept in a dog kennel deep down in the hold. In the afternoons he would make his appearance on the promenade deck, clad smartly, and twirling a waxed moustache. He introduced himself as “Grand Duke Michael Romanoff” of Russia, and passengers believed him. By night he would loiter in immaculate dinner clothes. acquaintances, impressed by' his self endowed Utle, would buy him meals, sandwiches, champagne. His most successful coup, however, won him better sleeping quarters. He actually spent two nights in first-class cabins, telling the steward that he had lost his own cabin key.

“Ttye Duke” found no difficulty with the language problem. Several passengers tried to speak to him in Russian, He waved the flow of his supposedly “native” tongue away. “No, no,” he would say. “I must learn your English.” It was only by an accident that he was discovered. Air. Edward Cudahy, jun., son of a multi-millionaire meat packer of Chicago, casually mentioned the “Duke” to the liner’s captain. The captain had the stowaway brought before him, and summarily threw him into the “brig.” For tho next two days of this trip

his erstwhile companions saw no more of the “Duke,” until their startled eyes saw him unceremoniously hauled down the gang plank and taken to Ellis Island. The stowaway told the immigration authorities that he was a resident of New York and of Russian descent.