COCKROACHES IN A BUNK.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIX, Issue 15056, 27 July 1912, Page 2 (Supplement)

COCKROACHES IN A BUNK.

A MEDITERRANEAN CRUISE.

CLAIM FOR LOST EYE.

A strange sequel to a lady journalist cruise in the Mediterranean last summer was described in the High Court, before Mr. Justice Avory and a special jury. Mrs. Frances Vivian Campbell, of Ongar, Essox! sued the Prince Line, Ltd., New-ca©tlo-on-Tyne. in respect of a voyage she made from Manchester to the Mediterranean and back on their steamer Canb Prince. She alleged breach of contract and warranty and negligence. ..;.-. Mr. Raymond Asquith (who was with Mr. McCall, K.C., for the plaintiff), said Mrs. Campbell was the widow of Mr. Howard Douglas Campbell, a relative of the Duke of Argyll, and upon her husband's death the duke advised her to take up journalism. She earned about- £500 a year in the profession, and some time ago became engaged on business of a somewhat confidential character, in which she was associated with the late Mr. W. T. Stead. ■ «

Mrs. Campbell said she and her daughter and cousin, who accompanied her, suffered hardships and inconveniences on thevoyage; she complained of the accommodation and attendance, and that the food was inferior, badly served, badly cooked, and gave her ptomaine poisoning; which resulted in serious injury to her Health and the loss of the sight of one eye. She paid —20 for a first-class saloon ticket. On the wav out to the Mediterranean she complained to the captain that the blankets and linen given them were dirty, and that the" bunks were swarming with cockroaches. She noticed a cockroach in one of the cabbages the very first day she was on board.

Upon her return Mrs. Campbell wrote a letter to the defendants' agents in London, in which she wrote:

, " Our beds . were alive with cockroaches. . . We. had only the cheapest, coarsest, and roughest food possible to imagine. . . Actual starvation drove us to eat what were called mutton chops after leaving Malta, and we each and all were poisoned. . .' During all the time we had also to submit to every kind of annoyance from the captain, who tried to force on us a lady who came on board at Alexandria. . . I refused to know her, principally because she passed most of her time in the captain s cabin, going up on the bridge. I also objected to the manner in which he walked about th© deck with her, and in which he entered her cabin walking in and out as if it were occupied by his wife. . . ."

Daring the course of her evidence Mrs. Campbell stated that the late Mr. Stead was one of her first friends in the journalistic world, and it was upon his suggestion that she took her trip to the Mediterranean, with a view to doing journalistic work in that part of the world.

' Continuing her evidence, Mrs. Campbell said that a hundred thousand \ quads were brought on board at Alexandria, and subsequently many of them died. The chief steward selected some of the dead quails and put them in the storehouse. Quail on toast was served at dinner, but she had none.

At one meal some of the veal served was green and shiny. After this witness was taken ill, and while showing symptoms of ptomaine poisoning, felt a sudden sharp pain -over the eye of which she had since lost the sight. Mrs. Campbell added that what she did for Mr. Stead was private, and she was bound to'secrecy. The hearing was adjourned.