WILD BEASTS AT LARGE

Taranaki Daily News, 13 September 1934, Page 3

WILD BEASTS AT LARGE

HUNT BY OFFICERS AND CREW EXPERIENCE ON FORDSDALE. EXCITEMENT IN INDIAN OCEAN. The steamer Fordsdale, which arrived at Wellington on Saturday, is just an ordinary ship' discharging an ordinary cargo, but she has a story of the kind that one does not expect to find outside the realms of fiction—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 tlie Indian Ocean! It was when the Fordsdale was a unit of the Aberdeen and Commonwealth Line’jS fleet that she sailed from London for Fremantle with a varied collection of wild animals as unwilling passengers on her broad, flush deck. In one cage were two bears, in another a fine pair of tigers, in a third two panthers, and in a fourth a snow 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 other birds. ‘ If any of the officers had misgivings as to how their passengers would behave during their long sea voyage, their, first fears were early realised, for one night when the Fordsdale 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 rim 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 two bears, whisi 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 toward him, and immediately lost all interest in any everyday information that the log might contain. Wheeling in his tracks, he made a bee-line 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 wjitch the bears from a safe distance. All on board realised that the animals had 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. v \ 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 inside, 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.. One 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 dangerous animals again in captivity, the Fordsdale’s company set 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. 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 that 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 brought to the deck by one of the junior officers. Only when this animal, the last of the escapees, had been safely cagadi was the skipper satisfied.