IRISH TIMES ODDITIES:Allen Foster with more unusual reports from the The Irish Timesarchive.
Liner stops to rescue foxhound
Captain A.D. Turton, commander of a Clan liner, conveying a number of valuable foxhounds from Liverpool to Bombay, turned his ship around in the Bay of Biscay and steamed back for half an hour, to search for one of the dogs, which had jumped overboard while being exercised. The dog was not seen, and the vessel turned round again and steadied on the southerly course. The dog was then sighted a short distance away right ahead. Captain Turton hove to, while a boat was lowered, and the foxhound was hauled aboard exhausted. A few hours of careful attention and the dog completely recovered.
April 15th, 1930
Pin in woman's lung
A pin which was swallowed by a woman flag seller, and which had been lodged in her lung for 10 years, was extracted by an operation performed at the Glasgow Royal Infirmary yesterday. Repeated efforts were made to remove the pin without success, and the woman became weaker and thinner, until her life was despaired of. She is now reported to be improving, and it is thought that her life has been saved. The operation was the outcome of the interest taken in the case by a doctor who, after an X-ray examination of the woman's lung, himself recovered the long-lost pin.
December 20th, 1927
Irish frog the third-best jumper
A 2 ½ inch Frog "Mighty Toor Lock", made a leap of 14 feet 3 inches on Sunday to win third place for Ireland at the world championships of the International Frog Jumping Olympics in Angel Falls, California.
Owned by Frank McNeff, a native of Turlough, Co Mayo, then now in California, the frog was flown in from Ireland and given a two-day course before entering the contest. "Buck Junior", a long-legged American entrant, beat 200 frogs from Germany, Italy, France, Japan, Australia and Canada and received first prize.
His leap, watched by 22,000 people, was 15 feet 9 inches. Japan's entry was not in leaping form at all, and jumped only 2 feet 5½ inches.
May 22nd, 1956
Dog saves dog
The remarkable sagacity shown by a Great Dane in saving its playmate, a fox terrier, belonging to the same master, from being drowned, is reported from Leigh, Lancashire.
The terrier fell into the canal and swam about until nearly exhausted, as it was unable to climb a new embankment 18 inches high.
Workmen saw the Great Dane come up and lean over the embankment, and at full stretch grasp the terrier's collar and draw it towards the bank.
It could only raise the terrier a few inches, however. The terrier planted its paws on the coping, and the big dog held them down firmly by its heavy paws until it got a fresh grip on the collar, when it jerked the terrier on to the bank.
May 28th, 1929
Message washed up near home
Having apparently spent four years in the Atlantic, a bottle of about a pint capacity and secured with a patent brass stopper has just been picked up at Tramore Strand, Co Waterford.
Inside the bottle was a slip of paper, on one side of which was written, "Dropped about mid-Atlantic", and on the reverse "Martin Heally, Nenagh, Tipperary, John Power, Fenor, Waterford, April 9, 1924."
Inquiries which were made from Messrs Harvey and Son, shipping agents, of Waterford, showed that John Power, aged 20, of Fenor, Waterford, sailed from Queenstown, Co Cork for Halifax, Canada, on April 6th, 1924, on the S.S. Cedric.
The bottle contained only half a tablespoonful of water, and it was picked up a few miles from John Power's home at Fenor, Waterford.
The message was in pencil, and while slightly faded was perfectly clear.
December 19th, 1928