An Elephant Arrives at Alabama State Docks

Mobile - Alabama State Docks gets some unusual cargoes crossing its piers on occasion. Recent cargo was no exception as a 7-ton African bull elephant arrived aboard the vessel M/V Star Ikebana. 

“Tuska,” as it was named in advance of arrival, made its journey from Chalford, England, to the Alabama State Docks last Wednesday. It got to Alabama just in time for the first at-home football game when the University of Alabama plays Vanderbilt University this weekend in Birmingham.

Tuska is a 7-ton bronze life-sized sculpture of an African bull elephant that was commissioned by Tuscaloosa resident Jack Warner of Gulf States Paper Corp. The 24-foot elephant with its trunk extended is to be uncrated tomorrow and shown to a special audience for the first time on Thursday at the North River Yacht Club. It is to be placed on a knoll outside the clubhouse.

Tuska was too tall to be shipped upright and was brought across the Atlantic in one piece inside a huge specially-built crate. The elephant was tipped forward in a sling-like harness that supported its weight throughout the journey.

Kenya-based Terry Matthews was its sculptor, and the Pangolin Editions foundry at Chalford cast the huge design.  Shipment arrangements and U.S. Customs clearance was handled by Page & Jones Inc. of Mobile. Star Ikebana is operated by
Atlanticargo Service, a division of  Star Shipping A.S., which is a regular shipping line calling Mobile.