When I first found this article about new craze for canaries among sailors on the flagship of the Atlantic fleet, the Nelson, in 1929 I only gave it a quick scan until this passage caught my eye;
“Parrots are the proverbial pets of seamen ; but a genuine craze for canaries — costing 6/ with cage – developed suddenly among the men, and led to a difficulty when target practice was arranged”
Kalgoorlie Miner 6 Jun 1929 http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article94397788
I then had to go back and read it properly in case I was missing something. Were the sailors fine tuning their big guns by target shooting canaries? That is either real dedication to their craft or massed animal cruelty.
Fortunately I was wrong on both counts. When I read the story properly it turns out that so many of the sailors had been infected by the canary craze while in Malta and Gibraltar that the ship had become home to around 700 of them. The problem with target practice was that the guns were so loud, and their use caused such a shock through the ship, that the welfare of the canaries was a problem.
To avoid having 700 canaries frightened to death the birds were relocated to lower parts of the ship. When the guns were to be fired over their sanctuary the birds were again moved, this time to the messes.
I expect that ‘messes’ would have been an accurate description of those eating compartments once the birds were again moved on, don’t you?
I wondered what the commanders thought of this time-consuming craze? I can’t imagine that moving 700 bird cages in the confines of a large ship would be something that could be done with too much haste can you?
Not only that, I wonder how 700 birds of varying shades of yellow were kept track of by their owners? Can you imagine the fighting! Canaries are quite tuneful birds but we say Canary Yellow for a reason. I’m seeing name tags. Lots and lots of name tags…..
I agree that name tags would be the order of the day. What worried me more was how anyone in the mess could hear themselves think let alone speak with 700 canaries singing.
You are right, I am sure it would get to a point where it stopped being tuneful singing and became a torturous cacophony!
I think this could either be a cat’s nightmare or dream come true.
I wonder how many bird-hating sailors were aboard? I bet there were a few of them wishing they could just turf the cages overboard to get a little peace!
lol – Tuneful singing vs ‘Polly wanna cracka’. I’d take the canaries any day!
You are right, canaries v squawking parrots? Gimme the canaries 🙂
😀
I have a hard time imagining any British naval captain allowing 700 canaries aboard his ship.
I had an Aunt who had canaries and would put a teatowel over the cage to stop the singing. After reading this I had a mental picture of those 700 birds in their cages being smuggled aboard under hundreds of teatowels in a desperate attempt to keep them quiet 🙂
I wonder if the captain was a little more lenient on the sailors as they were returning home than he would have been if they were travelling on further?
Ewww…. I have nothing against canaries… in single digit quantities at most… 700 in a confined space would stink, but given the environment, they probably wouldn’t be the only thing that did.
I think that there would be so little personal space on a ship at the best of times that those 700 birds probably drove those who weren’t fanatics completely mad…. I’m guessing there were a few sleeping on deck to get get away from the stink!
What a great tale!
It is quite hard to imagine living in close quarters with hundreds of songbirds isn’t it! I think even the most ardent bird lover would need a quiet holiday afterwards 🙂
Trill frenzy!