The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1912-01-04
DEADLY COBRA.
On a Long Voyage Kills Sailor and
Others Live in Terror.

In the long voyage from Calcutta
to Boston the crew of the German
steamship Estterturm lived in hourly
| terror of death from a big cobra
whose sting is fatal. The deadly
character of the reptiles bite was
only too vividly proved on the fourth
day out of the voyage, when the men
of the forecastle and the officers
| heard a sudden, sharp scream of ag,
| ony
1t came from a sailor who had
been moving along the deck in the
darkness. He was bitten on the leg
and a few hours later died in convul-
sions, suffering most poignant agony
The man had only the merest glimpse
of the snake as it squirmed out OF
sight and into hiding. Sunday night
the deadly cobra was still alive and
aboard the ship. 1t is believed to be
coiled and hiding somewhere among
the jute bags in the steamships hold,
driven to shelter by the nipping cold
that has probably reduced it to a
state of lethargy.
But not a member of the nerve
racked crew can be secured to vol
unteer to seek out and kill the pois-
onous creature. They are held back
by the horror of the remembrance
of their comrades cry the night he
was bitten and the spectacle of his
agonized death.
In closely boarded crates the Es-
tterturm took 124 snakes aboard at
Calcutta on an assignment to New
York animal dealer. The cobra had
box to himself. The snakes were
fed from time to time by dropping
live rats into the crates, the rodents
being caught by traps set in different
sections of the ship. Such was the
sinuous strength of the cobra that it
was able to rip open the stout slat
that Gagged it within the box. No
discovery of it's escape came until the
night that the sailor was fatally bit
ten.
Officers and men made two or
three hunts for the deadly creature,
but as there were hundreds of places
aboard the ship where it could coil
in hiding, the snake was not found.
Every night became one of terror to
the sailors, therefore. Some fatty
refused to go out on deck at night,
and those who did moved cautiously
along picking their way and flashing
lantern light ahead of them. Now
and then a terrified sailor reported
having seen the snake darting across
the deck in the darkness. The lurk-
ing, deadly danger that was about
them night and day brought some of
the sailors into port on the verge of
nervous collapse.
Once the killing of the snake was
almost affected. Half dozen sail
ors armed with long clubs searched
and beat every Granny of the super
structure of the ship, and finally
started the cobra from under a coil
of rope. Once or twice, as one or
two of the men aimed the clubs and
were ready to strike, the cobra rear
ed and darted it's fangs back at it's
pursuers in rage and the men scat
tered, shouting in dread and fear.
This time the snake disappeared
down a ventilator and it is supposed
found it's way down into the cargo
in the hold.
Since the steamship neared port
and the weather grew decidedly cold
the snake has lain dormant. Or, at
least, it did not reappear on the
deck. None of the other 1913 snakes
got out. But the Estterturm faces
a serious predicament, for when the
story that the terrorized sailors told
when they got ashore came to the
ears of the stevedores, they went on
strike, refusing to handle the cargo
in the hold because of the presence
Of the snake whose sting is certain
death.