Detectives Given 

 The Works as Ship 

 Crosses Equator 



Mysterious Pair Led 

 Handcuffed Before 

 Neptune on the Uruguay 



Bearing gifts for South Amer- 

 ican zoos, Dr. William M. Mann, 

 director of the National Zoologi- 

 cal Park, is en route to points in 

 Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay 

 to collect birds, reptiles and ani- 

 mals. Among those on "board his 

 ship is William H. Shippen, jr., 

 feature writer of The Star staff, 

 who here presents the seventh oj 

 a series of articles 

 Mann's expedition. -* 



By WILLIAM H. SHIPPEN, Jr. 



Star Staff Correspondent. 



ABOARD THE S. S. URUGUAY. 

 — All day we have been skirting the 

 east coast of South America while 

 King Neptune dunked his neophytes 

 in the ship's pool. 



His majesty of the long, flowing 

 beard and trident commanded a 

 score of nimble assistants who be- 

 gan the initiation with a bride and 

 bridegroom and worked up to a 

 pair of mysterious, well-dressed, 

 cigar-smoking detectives. 



The latter passengers are on some 

 rather grim business of their own. 

 But on the southward journey they 

 can and do relax. Oddly enough 

 they're both Irish and tops at deck 

 sports and horse play. Thus they 

 have become popular and well 

 known. 



When they were led blindfolded 

 and handcuffed before the throne of 

 Neptune a great shout went up: 



"Here come the cops! Give 'em 

 the works, your majesty! So they 

 won't talk?" 



Plastered With Spaghetti. 



To say the detectives got a thor- 

 ough going over would be putting it 

 mildly. It was no fault of Neptune 

 or his assistants if the policemen 

 failed to feel the bump going over 

 the Equator. (See picture above.) 

 The blindfolded victims got an egg 

 shampoo and ice in their bathing 

 suits. They were plastered with a 

 hundred yards or so of spaghetti 

 and seasoned with ketchup and 

 various sauces. 



Little is visible on the flat, low 

 coast of South America — now a 

 purple rim on the horizon some 20 

 miles off the starboard side. With 

 binoculars one picks out an occa- 

 sional exotic-looking palm and pil- 

 lars of smoke in an otherwise flaw- 

 less sky. The smoke must rise from 

 swamp fires— like those in Dismal 

 Swamp, near Norfolk. 



The ship is continually passing 

 strange little fishing vessels with 

 sails of fantastic shapes. They bob 

 about on an ocean which seems 

 too immense for them. 



This is Monday, five days out of 

 from Rio. Even the ship's officers 

 are surprised at the distances in this 

 part of the world. These big boats, 

 the Uruguay, the Argentina and 

 Brazil, have been in regular ser- 

 vice down this way only a few 

 months. All the ship's officers are 

 studying Spanish and Portuguese. 



The Tables Are Turned. 



It's amusing to see big, sun- 

 burned men accustomed to bawling 

 orders now having to take them 

 from a tiny Spanish school teacher. 

 The officers come sidling in when 

 they're tardy, and they don't talk 

 back to the teacher. 



"Senor," said the little teacher to 

 one of the navigating officers, "Tell 

 me in Spanish what fruits you like." 



"Only apples," declared the offi- 

 cer in pretty good Spanish," and 

 then added in English, "You can be- 



the Japanese began to bomb that 

 city. 



The members of the crew worked 

 for something like six cents a day. 

 Out of that sum they bought their 

 own food— a community pot of rice. 

 In the forecastle they squatted 

 about their bowl of rice and curry 

 on the floor, using chop sticks. 



In port at Halifax, Boston and 

 New York an officer, with a gun 

 tucked in his pocket, stood guard 

 over the gangway. The owners of 

 the freighter would have been liable 

 to a fine of $1,000 had they lost 

 a Chinese at any of these stops. 



All of which might present a 

 rough idea of what it means for 

 American ships to compete on the 



oceans. 



Tomorrow: A 10,000-mile fish- 

 ing trip. 



"HITTING 



equator is 



THE EQUATOR"— By a little trick photography, how it feels for a ship to cross the 

 shown here. 



lieve it or not, but I never touch 

 any fruit but apples." 



"All right then," snapped the little 

 Spaniard, "Please inform me in 

 Spanish what fruits you don't like!" 



The officer went to the foot of 

 the class. 



This crew of 330 members is fed 

 well. In the crews' galley forward 



(from which I carry water for Dr. 

 Mann's thirsty animals) are pre- 

 pared such dishes as roast lamb, 

 goose and chicken, done to a turn 

 by Charley, a huge German, the 

 chief cook. Charley, who is now 

 closer to 50, has been sailing vari- 

 ous oceans since he was 16. 

 He dishes out food In striking 



contrast to that I saw aboard the 

 Silver Ash, a British freighter in 

 which Dr. Mann brought back ani- 

 mals for the Smithsonian-National 

 Geographic Society expedition in 

 the fall of 1937. I went to meet the 

 Silver Ash in Halifax. The freighter 

 had pick up a gang of Chinese 

 coolies in Shanghai, shortly before 



