MICE TAKE TO SEA

Hokitika Guardian, 16 October 1933, Page 3

MICE TAKE TO SEA

LARGE NUMBERS IN SHIPS “SOMETHING OF A MYSTERY” Rats'have been ragarded'as an integral part of every ship’s crew since the days when ships were first-built; There are hundreds of stories of rats leaving sinking ships 'and giving warning if there is ;i fire below. And now the ship rat is being ousted from liis recognised home hy a small but persevering enemy, the mouse. There are more mice than rats found in the merchant ship's of to-day, a Morning Post representative learned recently at the headquarters of Mr Crapman, London’s busiest rat-catcher. His officers comprise a veritable arsenal. Every sort of destructive device, ranging front 1 Elaborate traps to are the tools of his trade, and his work, •and that ’of ’ his' assistants, is; done in the- dark hfilds of-the'ships) where the

' rodents Tive'among Yvery sort of cargo and travel to all fh.e ports, of .the world. * The J process’ or,. “de-ratting” a ship to-day is long ’ and 'difficult, although it is nothing to the work involved 50 'years’ ago. At a recent international cconference in P.aris) a code was drawn ! up' whereby a captain can present, (at ' any port in the world, a . certificate j which will show tliat his ship lias been { “de-ratted,” or, alternatively,, whereby | In's ship will,be -inspected!flu ihft-.sutrie-pianr.er in every port, j When a suspected ship .arrives -in London, a “searcher? . is, sent...by the Prir,t,of... London ; Aut.lipyj.ty. : ; i o > ;c xplor 3 every... corner- of •tlielfihip.'.y-If a-iiy dead rats or mice are discovered, they are r-'ut":• en ce'-Kcntr-to' th ev-tfea TrSi 'arch •' station- to be examined for traces of bubonic plague. If plague is suspected', the. shin has to he taken out into midstream and evacuated. The cargo is transferred to barges, which have already been fumigated, and the ship is sealed, having previously been thoroughly "“gassed.” ’ Even the lifeboats in a ship are fumigated, apd there is np corner which the rat-catchers, withytheir cans of hydrogen-cyanide gas arid their gasmasks, cannot penetrate. The result is that very few -modern merchantmen cannot show a clean sheet at the end of a voyage. The sudden recent appearance of mice is puzzling the rat-catchers. The mouse: has never been a seafaring creature, and the reasons for his determination to oust his unpleasant cousin from the grain-holds in ships is sometiling of a mystery.