Drunken monkey redux

BAD MONKEY COMES TO TOWN

Jocko Is a Murderer, Thief, and Heavy Drinker, Say Ship's Officers.

A murderer, a thief, a drinker of much intoxicating liquor, and a general bad character got past the immigration officials yesterday when the big British freighter Inverclyde got to port. The bad qualities are combined in Jocko, a young orang-utan, property of the skipper. The ship's officers, however, unite in saying that Jocko has the qualities of a vagabond more than a crook.

When the vessel was in Singapore the Captain bought the primate from a native. When the Inverclyde got well out on the North Atlantic Jocko, having the run of the ship, took his abode in a coal bunker. It was from this retreat that he emerged when the Inverclyde got to her South Brooklyn pier yesterday morning. He was covered with grime and disreputable looking. Afraid to wet the animal lest he would catch cold, Percy Webster, the first officer, and Charles Hancock, the second officer, gave him what they called an oatmeal shampoo. Their simian friend sat contentedly on a hatch eating an apple while they rubbed dry oatmeal into his hair and the brushed it out and most of the coal dust with it, using a stiff brush.

Jocko commited murder on the high sees. There were on board Rummy the ship's cat, and Jitsy, a fluffy powder puff of a dog from Japan. The primate took a violent dislike to Rummy, and the latter, reciprocating, kept out of his way. All went well until one sunshiny day, when the monkey caught Rummy asleep on a coil of rope on deck. He seized the cat by the tail and threw him overboard before one of the seamen could interfere. Jocko and Jitsy became fast friends, and, despite the objections of the officers, the dog spent nearly all his time in the bunker of his friend.

Another one of Jocko's vices is theft. He can go througha pocket with the agility of a pickpocket. Once he stole the first officer's watch, and the ticking of it amused him so much that he allowed himself to be caught. The watch was recovered uninjured. As a punishment he was spanked with a hairbrush, and hence his aversion to hairbrushes.

"Jocko is a great fellow," said Webster. "He smokes a pipe and his fond of port wine and whisky."

Published: October 9, 1911
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