A QUEER CARGO.

Waikato Times, Volume 102, Issue 17220, 1 October 1927, Page 16 (Supplement)

A QUEER CARGO.

SHIPLOAD OF MONKEYS. A queer cargo was carried to London by the steamship Mahronda. The vessel carried 1000 rhesus monkeys from India to ho distributed through various European menageries and zoos. II is said to be the biggest shipment of monkeys on record, and ,thc little passengers consumed 3001 b of rice at every meal. Five babies were born on the voyage. Luckily there were no mutinies, but another ship carrying wild animals was no 1 so lucky. Mr Robert Nelson, a marine engineer of Sutherland, has lately described his experiences on that occasion. The ship was proceeding from the Dutch East Indies to New York,- and during a storm some of the cages got damaged. _ Suddenly an orang-utan appeared in the - engineroom with a coal hammer in his great hand. The engineers fled before him, and he proceeded to work havoc. Meanwhile the mate had been wakened by the entrance of a cobra, which writhed its way into his cabin and, when he fired a revolver at it, dived through the porthole into the sea. A valuable specimen was lost. For a time the ship was all in confusion, for there were tigers and great apes in the collection, but at length the animals were recaptured and the voyage was resumed without a casualty, except for the cobra, which the mate refused to think of as a loss to society.