Adventures in Paris

George Wombwell junior then made his way to France, his mission to bring Peto, a bad-tempered Parisian elephant to London. George's first problem was to locate a ship to transport Peto. The Captain of the ship however was not prepared to delay his departure on behalf of the uncooperative Peto, and hence George was now left stranded in Paris for two weeks, trying to persuade Peto to stay in his cage.

Picture of Victorian Paddlesteamer copied from TheOtherSide. The site
reports that  in the 1850s most ships were still powered by sail - paddle steamers
also kept masts and sails in case the engine broke down. Small steam ferries
could make a fast crossing whatever the wind direction - but were tossed around
on the waves.

A contract was entered into with the owners of the steamer “Esther” trading between Paris and London. A cage was made with roller wheels for “Peto” but like “Jumbo”, he declined the polite invitation to enter and the steamer started without him. As a fortnight would elapse before the steamer would start again we used all sorts of stratagem and by depriving of food (except in the cage) to entice him to get used to the cage.

In an echo of his previous escapades with elephants, naturally, the rescheduled departure started with an accident on the road:

The night before the steamer was to start “Peto” had a food supper of cooked oats, bran and carrots, was got into the cage, and both ends were made fast. Twelve horses were engaged to drag him away and we started at 4 o’clock in the morning but a stop was soon put to our journey. Some time previously a tree had been taken up to widen the pathway – the off (side) front wheel sank into the hole where the tree had been and over went the cage, “Peto” and all. “Peto” soon smashed the cage, strong as it was, all to pieces, and made his way back to his old den.

The next, and one would have thought, foreseeable problem was that there was not enough room on the deck for the cage, forcing the removal of both a mast and a pump. It can be imagined as the 'Esther' finally made its way along the Seine, that it was not just Peto the elephant that was in a bad temper: 

A fresh cage was made but “Peto”, was very cautious and sagacious about entering it tho’ by keeping him without food we finally succeeded in trapping him. A fresh start was made for the steamer… but the steamer was reached in safety. On the cage being slung it was found there was not sufficient room on deck so one of the masts and a pump had to be removed – the Captain had to exercise great caution in passing under the numerous bridges down the river Seine.