Stowaway found on ship. On April 5, 1941, the American-West African Line freighter West Lashaway docked in Boston after arriving from Freetown, Sierra Leone with a load of cocoa beans. When the hold was opened more than cocoa beans were found down below. A female Basenji was discovered half-starved after surviving twenty-one days in the hold.
According to the ship's crew, while they were loading cocoa beans in Monrovia, Liberia two barkless dogs played about the ship. The crew thought all the animals had been chased down the loading runways. Apparently, she had stowed away in the hold of the ship and when the hatches were battened down could not escape. During the rest of the journey the hatches were not removed. She was able to get water by licking condensation and some food by nibbling on cocoa beans.
Boston Animal Rescue League called in. Animal Rescue agent Archie McDonald was sent to investigate. He found a sharp-eared dog shivering with fright in the hold of the ship and in critical condition. Because of her critical condition, Agent McDonald was able to get permission from customs officers to remove her from the ship and take her to the Boston Animal Rescue League. When she was weighed she was found to be only nine pounds. Through feeding of special solution and placement in a heated box, doctors at the Animal Rescue League successfully saved her life. Vets estimated that she was nine to ten months old. She was docile and evidently pleased to see humans. According to the League this was the first Basenji to be treated by them. She was given the name Congo.
Congo finds a home. Following press coverage of the story, Mr. Alexander Phemister, a noted Obedience trainer, went to see her. She was almost all-white, with brindle on her ears, a brindle patch on the right side and a docked tail, but he pronounced her to be a Basenji. The natives in Gambia and Sierra Leone used to dock their Basenjis' tails so that their prey, gorillas, could not get a hold on the dog and rip them apart.2 She was adopted by the Phemisters who continued nursing her. Later she was bred and produced a litter. Because of Congo, the Phemisters went on to be one of the earliest Basenji breeders in the United States.
Postscript. The West Lashaway was sunk by the German U-boat U-66 on August 30, 1942 in the Atlantic off South America with 38 lives lost.
Passengers report Nazi activity. Mr. Harry M. Wright, member of the Christian and Missionary Alliance of New York, who with his wife arrived on the ship, said that reports of the sinking of a British convoy reached the West Lashaway a day after she had left Freetown. Had she sailed a day early she would have been in the vicinity of the convoy. While off Dakar, Africa, a bomber flew over and circled the ship, then flew off. The following night, he said, a big cruiser of unknown nationality came abreast of the ship and played spotlights on her, and seeing she was an American vessel, left immediately.
1 Photo: Boston Evening Transcript, April 9, 1941 p. 9. Public Domain.
2 Ford, Elspet, The Complete Basenji, 1993 p. 92.
3 Photo: Boston Daily Globe, April 8, 1941 p. 4. Public Domain.
4 West Lashaway's photo courtesy www.armed-guard.com, Tom Bowerman.
Sources: "Incoming Steamers, Due Tomorrow" Boston Post, April 4, 1941. "Ship's Passengers Say Nazis Active in Africa" Boston Post, April 6, 1941 p. 21. "Barkless Dog Ship's Stowaway" Boston Post, April 9, 1941 p. 6. "It's a Dog's Life, Shanghaied; Now U.S. to Kick Her Out!" Boston Evening Transcript, April 9, 1941 p. 9. "Barkless Dog Arrives Here As Stowaway on Freighter" Boston Traveler, April 9, 1941. "African Barkless Dog, Stowaway, Boston Ward" The New York Times, April 10, 1941 p. 16.
Compilation by James E. Johannes.