BIRDS ON BURNING SHIP

Sun (Auckland), Volume IV, Issue 935, 31 March 1930, Page 18

BIRDS ON BURNING SHIP

—_— RECOVERED ALIVE FROM SUNKEN LINER 7,000 SONGSTERS SAVED j After 24 hours of battle with the fire which persisted on the upper part I of the sunken liner Muenehen in her (dock in New York the firemen were j able to search the ship last month, j Then they made the astonishing dis- ; covery that a shipment of 7,000 song birds —reported to have been burned | to death many hours earlier —were all | alive: They were canaries, finches, I and nightingales, and they had been confined and unapproachable for all those hours in a hold which had been flooded. But they had had, to a bird, survived the smoke and fumes from chemicals from other parts of the cargo, as well as the deluge of water that had been poured down from above them. As cage after cage of the “presumed dead” creatures was brought up into the sunshine and transferred to the pier, a medley of chirping and tweeting swelled into a glorious chorus of trills. Firemen and employees of the ships and wharves uttered exclamations of wonder and delight and seemed more pleased than if they had recovered a i chest filled with treasure of gold and | jewels.