A PANTHER LOOSE IN A SHIP.

Dunstan Times, Issue 535, 19 July 1872, Page 3

A PANTHER LOOSE IN A SHIP.

■ : £■- J Liverpool Shipping and' Commercial Gazette. An exciting story iff thought "by the overland mail. The vessel Gleuaryney, .when leaving the Straits, tbok'en board one of the largest specimens of the black panther. The animal was secured in an Iron cage-house, sufficiently strong, it.was thought, .for its conveyance to Calcutta. When in the of, Malacca, screams were heard from the passengers in the ’tween decks, numbering some 300 men, women, and children ; these were hy a pellmell rush upon deck., The panther had got clear of its cage, and found its way down to the ’tween decks. It had been disporting itself over the prostrate forms of the 300 slumbering passengers for some minutes before its presence became known. Every available means of exit were thrown open,' add all the passengers got on deck in safety, when the hatches and companions were again closed, and the panther left in undisputed and solitary possession of the ’tween decks. One man alone appeared to have suffered from the claws of the animal, a large strip of skin and flesh having been torn from his back. Various accounts of the behaviour of the animal when below were given by those who had seen him, but most concurred in saying that after gambolling over the sleeping bbdies as described, when the alarin was given and the shouts and screams were heard, he had made one or two frightened springs from <srte ehd of the deck to the other. It was concluded that the animal must have jumped out of the port into the sea,, for he could not be found. The steamer arrived next day at Penand, the passengers settleddown in their quarters as before, and she started the same evening for Calcutta. During tho night some boatswain’s stores were required from forward, and one of the Chinese lascars was sent down to get them, when he presently returned, trembling with fear, exclaiming, ‘ ‘ Tiger have gottee down there !” : Captain Bolton scut for his breech-loading rifle and cartridges, and'went down the hatch by himself, ordering it to be closed after him, lest if the beast really was there it should get on the deck and re-enact the alarm of the two nights before. On reaching the deck of the store-room and looking round, Captain Bolton saw the yellow lit eyes of the animal glaring down from the top of some spars stowed along the ship’s side, and by-and-bye, by the dim light admitted by the port, could make out the outline of the body ; when, taking as steady an aim as he could for what he considered tho centre of the animal’s body, he let tire. When tho smoke from the discharge cleared away, the two yellow eyes Were still glaring down from the same direction A second cartridge haying been supplied, the rifle was igain raised, anti, following tho second discharge of the piece,‘■■Captain Bolton had the satisfaction to hear the heavy body of the inimal coma tumbling down on theufcck at bis feet. The animal measured 7 feet eight inches in length.