Ship's cat

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Ship's cat on HMAS Encounter during World War I
Captain AJ Hailey with his cat on RMS Empress of Canada, 1920s

The ship's cat has been a common feature on many trading, exploration, and naval ships dating to ancient times. Cats have been carried on ships for many reasons, most importantly to control rodents. Vermin aboard a ship can cause damage to ropes, woodwork, and more recently, electrical wiring. In addition, rodents threaten ships' stores, devour crews' foodstuff, and can cause economic damage to ships' cargo, such as grain. They are also a source of disease, which is dangerous for ships that are at sea for long periods of time. Rat fleas are carriers of plague, and rats on ships were believed[a] to be a primary vector of the Black Death.[2]

Cats naturally attack and kill rodents,[3] and their natural ability to adapt to new surroundings made them suitable for service on a ship. In addition, they offer companionship and a sense of home, security and camaraderie to sailors away from home.


The African wildcat was probably first tamed in the Fertile Crescent during the first agricultural revolution that started about 10,000 years ago.[4] Small cat bones excavated on Mediterranean islands indicate that cats were introduced around the beginning of the first millennium.[5] Analysis of mitochondrial DNA of archaeological cat specimens revealed that ancient Egyptian cats started spreading in the 8th century BCE along Mediterranean trading routes and reached a Viking port at the Baltic Sea by the 7th century.[6] The study suggests that viking sailors took cats with them on their voyages.[7] During the Age of Discovery from the 15th through the 18th centuries, explorers and traders took them on board their ships to much of the rest of the world.[8]

Cats and superstition[edit]

Sometimes worshipped as deities, cats have long had a reputation as magical animals and numerous myths and superstitions sprang up among the unusually superstitious seafaring community.[9] They were considered to be intelligent and lucky animals, and a high level of care was devoted to keeping them happy. Some sailors believed that polydactyl cats were better at catching pests, possibly connected with the suggestion that extra digits give a polydactyl cat better balance, important when at sea.[10] In some places polydactyl cats became known as "ship's cats".[11]


Some of these beliefs are rooted in reality. Cats are able to detect slight changes in the weather, as a result of their very sensitive inner ears, which also allow them to land upright when falling. Low atmospheric pressure, a common precursor of stormy weather, often makes cats nervous and restless.[12] Cats naturally react to barometric pressure changes, through which a keen observer can detect unusual behavior and predict an incoming storm.[13] The tradition that every ship needs a mascot made cats very welcome among sailors.

Notable examples[edit]



Aussie was the last ship's cat of the transpacific liner RMS Niagara. He was a five-year-old grey-and-white long-haired tom. His mother had been Niagara's cat before him; his father was a Persian cat in Vancouver, British Columbia. Aussie was born at Suva in Fiji.[15]

When Niagara was mined off the coast of New Zealand in 1940, Aussie was put in one of the lifeboats, but he jumped back aboard ship. A few days later, residents of Horahora, Whangarei, claimed that a cat answering Aussie's description came ashore on a piece of driftwood, and that one of them had taken him in, but the cat escaped and had not been seen since.[15]


Atlantic Conference August 1941: Churchill restrains 'Blackie' the cat, the mascot of HMS Prince of Wales, from joining USS McDougal, an American destroyer, while the ship's company stand to attention during the playing of the National Anthem
Winston Churchill restrains Blackie, the ship's cat of HMS Prince of Wales, from boarding USS McDougal during a 1941 ceremonial visit

Blackie was HMS Prince of Wales's ship's cat. During the Second World War, he achieved worldwide fame after Prince of Wales carried Prime Minister Winston Churchill across the Atlantic to NS Argentia, Newfoundland, in August 1941, where he secretly met with the United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt for several days in a secure anchorage. This meeting resulted in the declaration of the Atlantic Charter.


Blackie survived the sinking of Prince of Wales by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service later that year, and was taken to Singapore with the survivors. He could not be found when Singapore was evacuated the following year and his fate is unknown.[17]




Chibley was the ship's cat aboard the tall ship Barque Picton Castle. She was rescued from an animal shelter and circumnavigated the world five times. Picton Castle’s role as a training ship resulted in Chibley being introduced to a large number of visitors and becoming a celebrity in her own right. Chibley died on November 10, 2011, in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. She had sailed over 180,000 miles at sea.[19]


Convoy asleep in a hammock aboard HMS Hermione

Convoy was the ship's cat aboard HMS Hermione. He was so named because of the number of times he accompanied the ship on convoy escort duties. Convoy was listed in the ship's book and provided with a full kit, including a tiny hammock in which he slept. He was killed along with 87 of his crew mates when Hermione was torpedoed and sunk on 16 June 1942 by German submarine U-205.


Emmy was the ship's cat on RMS Empress of Ireland. She was an orange tabby cat who never missed a voyage. However, on 28 May 1914, Emmy jumped ship while in port in Quebec City. The crew returned her to the ship, but she left again, leaving her kittens behind. Empress of Ireland left without her, which was regarded as a terrible omen.[20] Early the next morning Empress of Ireland was struck by Storstad while steaming through fog near the mouth of the Saint Lawrence River and rapidly sank, killing more than 1,000 people.[21]




Halifax was the name given to Alvah and Diana Simon's ship's cat who was found in the Canadian port of Halifax, on their way to winter at Tay Bay in 1994, on Roger Henry. The cat spent all of the time iced in on the boat with Alvah, when Diana had to leave for family purposes. Alvah's book North To The Night[24] describes his adventure in the ice with Halifax the cat, who ended up losing half an ear to frostbite.


Jenny was the name of the ship's cat aboard Titanic and was mentioned in the accounts of several of the crew members who survived the ocean liner's fateful 1912 maiden voyage. She was transferred from Titanic's sister ship Olympic and gave birth in the week before Titanic left Southampton. The galley is where Jenny and her kittens normally lived, cared for by the victualling staff who fed them kitchen scraps.[25] Stewardess Violet Jessop later wrote in her memoir that the cat "laid her family near Jim, the scullion, whose approval she always sought and who always gave her warm devotion".[26][27]


Melvin Vaniman and Kiddo

Kiddo seemed to have stowed away on the airship America, when it left from Atlantic City, New Jersey, in 1910 to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Initially, Kiddo was so upset by the experience, the cat had to be placed in a gunny sack and suspended beneath the airship's gondola. He eventually settled in and, evidently, was better at predicting bad weather than the barometer. The airship's engines eventually failed, and the small crew and Kiddo abandoned the America for lifeboats when they sighted the Royal Mail Ship Trent near Bermuda. Kiddo then was retired from being a ship's cat and was taken care of by Edith Wellman Ainsworth, the daughter of the American journalist, explorer, and aviator Walter Wellman who made the daring attempt.[28]

Mrs Chippy[edit]

Mrs Chippy, a tiger-striped male tabby ship's cat

Mrs Chippy (actually a male) was the ship's cat aboard Endurance, the ship used by Sir Ernest Shackleton for his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. When the ship was lost, having become trapped and eventually crushed in pack ice, Shackleton ordered five sled dogs and Mrs Chippy shot, as Shackleton had decided that the animals could not be kept during the arduous journey ahead.


Nansen was the ship's cat on Belgica, which was used for the Belgian Antarctic Expedition. He was brought on board by cabin boy Johan Koren, and was named after Fridtjof Nansen. He died on 22 June 1898,[29] and was buried in the Antarctic.[30]


Lieutenant Commander R H Palmer plays with Peebles, the ship's cat, who leaps through his clasped arms on board HMS Western Isles at Tobermory, Mull



Pooli in uniform on July 4, 1959, her 15th birthday

Pooli served aboard a United States attack transport during the Second World War.[31] She was awarded three service ribbons and four battle stars.[32]


Rinda was the ship's cat on the Norwegian cargo ship Rinda, which was torpedoed and sunk during World War II. When the surviving crew realized that their beloved ship's cat was not on board the lifeboat, they rowed around in the night until they finally heard a pitiful "miauu" in the distance. "We rowed as hard as we could and laughed and cried when we lifted the sopping wet furball aboard". The cat became the ship's cat aboard the rescue ship, the British armed naval trawler HMT Pict, and was given the name Rinda after the previous ship.[33]


Simon was the ship's cat of HMS Amethyst during the Yangtze Incident in 1949, and was wounded in the bombardment of the ship which killed 25 of Amethyst's crew, including the commanding officer. He soon recovered and resumed killing rats and keeping up the crew's morale. He was appointed to the rank of 'Able Seacat' Simon and became a celebrity after the ship escaped the Yangtze and returned to Britain. He later contracted an infection and died shortly after. Tributes poured in and his obituary appeared in The Times. He was posthumously awarded the Dickin Medal, the only cat ever to earn the award, and was buried with full naval honours.


Tarawa was a kitten rescued from a pillbox during the Battle of Tarawa by the United States Coast Guard. She was a mascot aboard an LST, but did not get along with the LST's other mascot, a dog named Kodiak, and jumped ship ashore.[18]





Togo was the ship's cat on HMS Dreadnought. A Persian cat, Togo was known for resting in the barrels of the ship's main battery.[34]


Trim was the ship's cat on a number of the ships under the command of Matthew Flinders during voyages to circumnavigate and map the coastline of Australia during 1801–1803. He became a favourite of the crew and was the first cat to circumnavigate Australia. He remained with Flinders until death. He has been the subject of a number of works of literature, and statues have been placed in his honour, including one that sits on a window sill at the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney.

Unsinkable Sam[edit]

Previously named Oscar, he was the ship's cat of the German battleship Bismarck. When she was sunk on 27 May 1941, only 116 out of a crew of over 2,200 survived. Oscar was picked up by the destroyer HMS Cossack, one of the ships responsible for destroying Bismarck. Cossack herself was torpedoed and sunk a few months later, on 24 October, killing 159 of her crew, but Oscar again survived to be rescued, and was taken to Gibraltar. He became the ship's cat of HMS Ark Royal, which was torpedoed and sunk in November that year.

Oscar was again rescued, but it was decided at that time to transfer him to a home on land. By now known as Unsinkable Sam because of surviving the three ship sinkings, he was given a new job as shore duty mouse-catcher in the office buildings of the Governor of Gibraltar because he still had "six lives to go".[35] He eventually was taken to the UK and spent the rest of his life at the 'Home for Sailors'. A portrait of him exists in the private collection of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.[36]


The Royal Navy banned cats and other pet animals from all ships on the ocean in 1975 on hygiene grounds;[14] however, cats are still common on many private ships.

One notable example is "Toolbox" (a feral kitten born in a toolbox), the senior ship's cat, official warrant officer and "Captain's Assistant" aboard the modern Kalmar Nyckel. A celebrity in her own right, she is the subject of two books.[37][38] A number of ship's cats were included in the chronicles for the National Geographic Magazine (1968–1970) and detailed in the 1972 book Dove by Robin Lee Graham, which was adapted into the 1974 film The Dove.[citation needed] Bug Naked, Captain Kate McCue's sphynx cat, sails with her aboard the mega cruise ship Celebrity Edge. [39]

In fiction[edit]

There are at least two books called The Ship's Cat: a 1977 children's book by Richard Adams and Alan Aldridge,[40] and a 2000 novel by Jock Brandis.[41] Matthew Flinders' Cat is a 2002 novel by Bryce Courtenay featuring tales about Trim, the ship's cat that circumnavigated Australia. In Fish Head, a 1954 children's book by Jean Fritz, the eponymous cat unwittingly becomes a ship's cat.[42]

In science fiction, the role of the ship's cat has been transferred to spaceships. Notable examples include Cordwainer Smith's 1955 short story "The Game of Rat and Dragon"[43] and Andre Norton's 1968 novel The Zero Stone[44] featuring a telepathic mutant feline named Eet.[45] Robert A. Heinlein's The Cat Who Walks Through Walls features a cat named Pixel who travels on various space adventures with the narrator.[46] On film, Alien (1979) and the sequel Aliens (1986) feature Jones ("Jonesy") aboard USCSS Nostromo.[47] In the UK science fiction comedy series Red Dwarf, a man called Lister was in stasis for three million years on the spaceship Red Dwarf when all other living beings had died except his pregnant cat. The cats evolved over the three million years into a humanoid species and when Lister came out of stasis he met the last of them that was called Cat.[48]

See also[edit]



  1. ^ Recent studies suggest this might not be true.[1]


  1. ^ Greshko, Michael (15 January 2018). "Maybe Rats Aren't to Blame for the Black Death". National Geographic News. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  2. ^ "The Black Death". John Martin Rare Book Room. Hardin Library for the Health Sciences. Retrieved 19 October 2020.
  4. ^ Driscoll, CA; Menotti-Raymond, M; Roca, AL; Hupe, K; Johnson, WE; Geffen, E; Harley, EH; Delibes, M; Pontier, D; Kitchener, AC; Yamaguchi, N; O'Brien, SJ; Macdonald, D. W. (2007). "The Near Eastern Origin of Cat Domestication". Science. 317 (5837): 519–523. Bibcode:2007Sci...317..519D. doi:10.1126/science.1139518. PMC 5612713. PMID 17600185.
  5. ^ Vigne, J.-D. (1992). "Zooarchaeology and the biogeographical history of the mammals of Corsica and Sardinia since the last Ice Age" (PDF). Mammal Review. 22 (2): 87–96. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2907.1992.tb00124.x.
  7. ^ Persson, Charlotte Price (22 September 2016). "Viking sailors took their cats with them". (in Norwegian). Retrieved 4 February 2021.
  8. ^ Mason, I. L., ed. (1984). Evolution of Domesticated Animals. London: Longman. p. 223. ISBN 0-582-46046-8.
  10. ^ Moss, Laura (September 16, 2015). "11 things you didn't know about polydactyl cats". MNN. Mother Nature Network. [Polydactyl cat's] large feet were thought to make them superior mousers, as well as provide better balance on the high seas.
  11. ^ MacLellan, Dr Jane, DVM (25 June 2018). "Polydactyl Cats". PetWorks Veterinary Hospital. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
  12. ^ Freeman, Margot. "How Do Cats React to Barometric Pressure?". The Nest. XO Group Inc. Retrieved 2 October 2017.
  13. ^ Freeman, Margot. "How Do Cats React to Barometric Pressure?". Retrieved 2019-10-10.
  14. ^ a b Famous ships cats and their lives, UK: Purr’n’fur
  15. ^ a b "The Niagara's cat". The New Zealand Herald. 2 July 1940. p. 6. Retrieved 19 December 2020 – via Papers Past.
  16. ^ "Cats". Royal Navy (book). UK: R Jerrard.[dead link]
  17. ^ Fred Glueckstein. "Churchill's Feline Menagerie". The Churchill Centre. Archived from the original on 29 April 2010. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  18. ^ a b "Mascots". History. US: US Coast Guard. Archived from the original on 23 May 2014.
  19. ^ Moreland, Captain Daniel (11 November 2011). "Captain's Log". Archive for the 'Chibley' Category. Retrieved 23 April 2018.
  21. ^ "ARCHIVED - Investigating the Empress of Ireland - Inland Waters - Shipwreck Investigations". Library and Archives Canada. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  22. ^ Arenstam, Peter (2007). Felix and His Mayflower II Adventures. ISBN 978-0979334818.
  23. ^ "Felix". The Journey of the Mayflower II. Plimoth.
  24. ^ Simon, Alvah (1998). North to the Night: A Year in the Arctic Ice. Camden, ME: McGraw-Hill [u.a.] ISBN 0-07-058052-9.
  25. ^ Eaton, John P; Haas, Charles A (1999). Titanic: A Journey Through Time. foreword by William MacQuitty. Sparkford: Patrick Stephens. p. 234. ISBN 1-85260-575-8.
  26. ^ Pellegrino, Charles (2012). Farewell, Titanic : her final legacy. Hoboken: Wiley. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-470-87387-8.
  27. ^ Jessop, Violet (2004). Maxtone-Graham, John (ed.). Titanic survivor: the newly discovered memoirs of Violet Jessop who survived both the Titanic and Britannic disasters (first ed.). Dobbs-Ferry, NY: Sheridan House. ISBN 1-57409-184-0.
  28. ^ Janus, A (2005). Animals Aloft: Photographs from the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum. Bunker Hill Publishing. ISBN 1-59373-048-9.
  30. ^ de Gerlache, Adrien, Belgica Belgian Antarctic Expedition 1897–1899, Cool Antarctica, archived from the original on 9 October 2010, retrieved 5 October 2010
  31. ^ "Changing Times: Los Angeles in Photographs, 1920–1990 (Pooli, cat who served aboard a United States attack transport during World War II celebrates 15th birthday)", The Los Angeles Times (photograph), UCLA, July 4, 1959
  32. ^ "Cats in the Sea Services". US Naval Institute.
  34. ^ Davies, Owen (2018). A Supernatural War: Magic, Divination, and Faith During the First World War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 154. ISBN 9780198794554.
  35. ^ "The Long and Curious History of Ship Cats". The Archive.
  36. ^ Baker, Georgina Shaw. "Item #PAJ2744: Oscar, Cat From the German Battleship Bismarck - Private Collections of the National Maritime Museum" (Framed drawing in pastel, 785 x 610 mm). Royal Museums Greenwich. London.
  37. ^ Mayers, Barbara (2007). Toolbox: Ship's Cat on the Kalmar Nyckel. Bay Oak Publishers, Ltd. ISBN 978-0974171395.
  38. ^ Ireland, Charles E, Jr (2006). Toolbox. Cedar Tree Books.
  39. ^ Quindara, Henry. "Cruise kitty makes the cutest first mate". USA Today. Retrieved 17 July 2021.
  40. ^ The Adventures & Brave Deeds of the Ship's Cat on the Spanish Maine: Together with the Most Lamentable Losse of the Alcestis & Triumphant Firing of the Port of Chagres. 1977. ISBN 978-0-224-01441-0.
  41. ^ Brandis, Jock (September 2000). The Ship's Cat. ISBN 978-0595129973.
  42. ^ Fritz, Jean, "Fish head", Kirkus Reviews
  44. ^ "THE ZERO STONE by Andre Norton". Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus Media. Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  45. ^ "The Zero Stone (#1)". Retrieved 19 April 2018.
  46. ^ Heinlein, Robert A. "The cat who walks through walls: a comedy of manners". Open Library. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
  47. ^ Burton, Bonnie (8 December 2016). "Ripley and her cat make 'Aliens' look cuddly". CNET. CBS Interactive. Retrieved 19 April 2018.

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