Hero of Three Shipwrecks is Also Strong Teetotaller Keeps Healthy on 12 Peanuts a Day Seated in his cabin just off the engine room of the China Navigation Co's s. Szechuen, Mr, J. H.
Fayers, chief engineer, told a "North-China ' Herald" representative about iis famous African grey parrot as the vessel heaved in rough seas near 'Ningpo a day or two ago. Mr. Fayers' arrot is the hero of three shipwrecks, He is well known to all China Coast officers, and popular among the many passengers who have made his ac-
"My parrot has been a member of the crew of at least fifty ships dur-his twelve years at sea," he said, "and has travelled as far south Bort Camphor, zo once said he would pay me the equivalent of £80 for him. But it would take a great deal more than that to make me part with Polly:
'The famous seafaring parrot started out on his career in' 1924 Andrew Weir vessel, He was given to Mr. Fayers by the skipper of this vessell. When he took charge of him, Swahili and Hindustani were among the languages in which he could make himself understood, First, Shipwreck It was in 192, ater three years? experience on coastal. boats, that Polly frst sprang into the headlines, In March of that year, he was on board the s. Tungting, 'a river boat, when the vessel was wrecked near Wusueh. The Tungting left Wusueh in the early morning, and at eight Jo'clock struck a rock, which tore the yesso: from the forecastle to. the engine room, The Tungting was beached, "and the passengers and crew got safely to shore, While waiting for help to arrive, the com-any. which included twenty or £0 Jeabaret girls from Hankow, were entertained by the parrot, which went through its entire repertoire in order to keep up the spirits of the shipwrecked mariner The parrot had its second experience of disaster at sea in August 1931, when on board the ill-fated s. Tehang, The ship was badly battered 100 miles from Amoy while running. away from a typhoon, She managed to muke port, but was so damaged that she hed'to be broken up and converted into scrap iron. During the nerve-racking trip into port with a gaping hole'in the side of the ship, the parrot was not in the least dismayed, but insisted on whistling and shouting absurd remarks, Polly had his narrowest escape from death last summer, when the s. Sunning was caught in the worst typhoon experienced along the China }Coast for many years, and was driven on a rock at Hongkong. Mr. Fayers was at home on leave at the time and the parrot was being cared for by the members of the crew of the vessel. The Sunning was anchored at Junk 'Bay when the typhoon struck, The parrot was' spirited away from the ship by members of the crew after the arrival of the tug which had come to the ship's rescue. /He was offered for $1 to anyone on the tug who eared to buy it. There were many who wanted the parrot, ut no one had a dollar, so it was given to the tug's crew for nothing.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.