Evening journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1888-1932, 1906-10-05
MONKEYS LAY
SIEGE TO SHIP
lmians, Aroused By Death OF
One OF Their Number, At
tack Chinese Crew
PULL PIGTAILSAND SCRATCH

NEW YORK. Oct. 5-"Never
lgain," observed Captain Lightoller,
master of the British freighter Low
Their Castle, as he rehectively contem-
plated the moon faced visage of his
Chinese steward. whose face had re-
Gently been crisis crossed with many
confusing lines; never again will !
ever permit any crew of mine to
speculate in monkeys"
The big freighter. sixty-four days out
from Yokohama, had just finished
making fast her lines to her pier at
the foot Of Market street, East River,
and the long voyage done, her captain
was ready to tell Of the exciting Incl
dents which had prevented it from be-
coming monotonous.
Save for the officers, the crew OF the
Lowther Castle is composed wholly Of
Chinese, and while in Yokohama the
pig tailed seamen, with celestial thrift
possessed themselves of half hum
dred monkeys. and with the captains
permission placed their Gagged hostages
in a space between decks. there to be
held at high ransom at the hands of
some New York dealer.
The story now goes to central Java,
where until a few months ago abided
I<ild and Chang, two simians, who for
three gibbering years had swung by
their ring tails. from the trees Of their
native jungle. Then came an evil day
when a party of hunters made them
1 captive and brought them to Singapore
and where they subsequently fell into
the hands Of Wing Kee, steward Of the
Lowther Castle.
The two were put i'm separate cages
and Immediately began to pine. One
more skilled in monkey ways than was
/ Wing Kee advised that they be put in
the same cage, but the cages were too
small and as a compromise Kiki, the
female was released on day. She i'm
mediately made dash for the cage
Of her jungle companion, and the pair
chartered so much and so long that
it was finally decided to let both go
free. This was DONE and the released
captives capered joyously up and down
the decks and up and down the rigging,
always in company.
Fireworks to Appease Demons.
Entering the Indian Ocean, the
I
accompanied with much thunder and
more lightning. To appease the demons
Of the storm the Chinese begged the
icaptain TO let them set off fireworks,
and he good humoredly assented.
Rockets and Roman candles had no
effect on the storm, but they had con-
/ siderable on the two monkeys. Chang
fled gibbering, to the forward rigging
while Fiki took to the lee rail. Another
rocket went kissing from the deck and
it so frightened poor Xxi that she
/ jumped straight up into the air. Al
the same moment the ship lurched
heavily to windward with the result
that when Xxi descended from hei
y jump she fell into the sea.
Chang saw what had happened
scrambled down the rigging, danced VI
and down the rail and then went leap
ing aloft in the rigging where he clung
on to the backstay and watched the
little black spot drifting astern until
it was lost to view.
One Of the Chinese sailors was sent
aloft to bring Chang back to the deck
but the monkey attacked him Sc
viciously that he made a hurried de-
scent to the deck. Others were sent
on the same mission, hut they Jared nc
better. For two days and nights the
monkey kept to his perch in the rig
ging brooding over the wrong that had
been done to his mate and planning
revenge on the slant eyed crew, whose
foolish fireworks had brought about his
bereavement. On the third mornins
he disappeared and it was believed
that he had gone overheard, and nc
trace of him could be found.
That night the ship was sedately
ploughing her way through the waters
when a most unearthly racket broke
out from below, and before the startled
crew knew what il was all about the
\ decks and rigging became black with
capering monkeys Some of the crew
rushed below to the cages, to find
Chang capering from one to the other
lThey had all been fastened with the
same simple devise. and having found
out how to open one Chang had set
about opening them all and had just
/ flung the last door open when the men
from on deck appeared.
Monkey Hunt For Three Days.
Then began a monkey hunt which
was TO last for three days and nights.
The monkeys seemed to enjoy it more
than did their Chinese hunters. Their
chief points Of attack were the queues
of their foes, and dropping from rat
/ line or stay plump on a Chinamans
shoulders. they would seize the coiled
pigtail and yank it joyously. scratch
ing and clawing all the time Thirty
six of the monkeys We're eventually
secured, but fourteen were killed in