JESUS CHRIST IT'S A TIGER!

Tigers were a problem, though. Lapierre couldn't find a crew for his boat because the Sunderbans tiger is an expert swimmer. As police inspector Abdul Rahim of Gosaba marveled, "These cats are faster in the water than the best of our national swim team. "The Sunderbans Bengal doesn't seem to mind an invigorating swim before dinner: the tiger waits until dark and then attacks crewmembers slumbering on fishing boats anchored in the mangrove waterways. Says a fisherman named Umed, "I woke up to see the flash of a tiger as it jumped over me to attack the man sleeping next to me. The tiger killed him." With such tales drifting out of the bayou, Lapierre found it almost impossible to recruit a crew and 10-person medical team for his hospital boat, which was sponsored mainly by Merisons, a Dutch wholesaler of household goods. "There is still a strong magic surrounding these tigers," says Lapierre. "It was very difficult to find doctors and nurses who weren't scared." Despite the tropical heat, the boat's windows all have strong, tiger-proof shutters.

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