Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 February 1911 — SNAKE LADEN SHIP ARRIVES [ARTICLE]

SNAKE LADEN SHIP ARRIVES

Vessel Carrying Many Reptiles, Apes and Dwarf Elephant, Has Exciting Voyage. New York. —Carrying snakes by the dozen, none of them under twenty feet in length; red faced apes, huge lizards, a “dwarf” elephant of three-foot height, and with a record on its log of having saved twenty-one persons from suicide, the British freighter M uncaster Castle from the Orient arrived the other day. The rescue occurred three months ago, just before the Muncaster Castle left the waters of east, when twenty men and a girl were taken from a dismasted vessel that had been adrift seventeen days, for six of which none on board the derelict had anything to eat or drink. The derelict had drifted 1,200 miles and all on board were ready to cast themselves into the sea, crazed by their sufferings. "The twenty-one told us they had just decided to drown themselves,” said Lieutenant W. J. Donohue, chief officer of the Muncaster Castle. "Six vessels had passed them without paying any heed to their signals and all were on the verge of insanity when we came within hailing distance. There was four feet of water In the hold of the derelict. “After the twenty men had been taken off we found a girl of 16 years huddled in the cabin. We saved her and then landed the survivors on the Malabar coast in southwest India.” Nearly 400 feet of phython set Bail on the Muncaster Castle, but only 240 feet survived the voyage. The snakes, lizards, small animals and the tiny elephant had a bad time of it when huge seas battered the freighter, tumbling over the crates and cages and causing an uproar in the Jungle passengers’ section. In the straits of Malacca one of the Chinese stokers saw the snakes. He rushed on deck, peered over the side, shouted that sharks had no terror for him and dived into the sea. A volun teer crew rescued the Chinaman.