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Ship Assistance – The RMS Mauretania 1962

The Account of an Atlantic Sea Crossing with the decks for a time 'almost inundated' with North American birds.

Alan Durand, a competent identifier of birds sailed from New York aboard the RMS Mauretania in the afternoon of 7th October 1962 looking forward to what he might see on his journey to Cork, Le Havre and Southampton which he reached on 14th October.

In those seven days he recorded 130 birds of 34 species and in his account of the journey (published in British Birds (Vol. 55 pp 157-164 and précised in Birdwatch October 1994) none seem to have been seabirds.

On his first evening he was joined by two species of butterfly; Monarch (Danaus plexippus) and an American swallowtail (Battus philenor). He spotted a Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) attempting to roost on a mast and an Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) circled above.

Five days before his departure, hurricane Daisy had travelled up the North American seaboard and on to Nova Scotia, all the time weakening but leaving strong westerlies across the north Atlantic in its wake.

By noon the next day the ship was 400 miles from New York and parts of the deck were ‘almost inundated’ with birds. These included 10 Northern Flickers a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius) and a Hairy Woodpecker (Dryobates villosus); three woodpecker species and not a tree in sight.

Over the next days the number of birds reduced; some flew from the ship (and sometimes returned) and others were found dead but there were still 50 or 60 present at noon on the 9th including a Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum). The last new species to be seen was a Baltimore Oriole (Icterus galbula).

As the ship passed the Fastnet Light, there were still at least nine free-flying birds still on board, including a Northern Flicker, Baltimore Oriole, Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis), White-throated Sparrows (Zonotrichia albicollis), Song Sparrows and a Field Sparrow (Spizella pusilla). The flicker was seen departing the ship after it had moored in Cobh Harbour, and the oriole and Field Sparrow were not seen again as the ship headed between the Isles of Scilly and Land’s End for Le Havre though there were still six species on board happily feeding on scraps put out for them.

One Song Sparrow and one White-throated Sparrow disembarked at Le Havre leaving a Dark-eyed Junco, a Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) and two White-throated Sparrows to steam along Southampton Water. A White-throated Sparrow was later seen in a park about half a mile from the Southampton dock.

A list of the species recorded with their British Status

I leave it to you (or rather the BOURC) to draw conclusions as to the veracity of many of the North American passerines accepted into Category A in the light of this account.