A Delightfu, and Informative look at Feline Seafarers

While this may seem like an amusing little book about the lives and antics of shipboard felines, it actually offers some interesting looks at the often valuable roles cats had aboard warships or otherwise in maritime service. While coverage is mostly of American and British seagoing cats, both in naval and merchant service, and among their marines, some other countries are also covered.

Obviously, cats, and other animals, who served as pets or mascots aboard ship were good for morale. The book has lots of anecdotes and images, mostly amusing, showing ways in which sailors interacted with their cats, such as cat hammocks and sailor suits, courts martial for naughtiness, cats eating rare fish specimens, formal funerals, and more.

But cats were also valuable for controlling rats, an historically common shipboard pest, carrying disease and spoiling cargo. Author Christenson, Director of Communications for the U.S. Naval Institute, also points out some other ways in which cats served. In the Pacific, crewmen on ships that were subjected to repeated air attacks over several days, began to notice that their cats would sometimes run for cover well before the Japanese aircraft appeared overhead, their ears having picked up the distant sounds of the approaching planes long before human ears could. Also mentioned are instances in which shipwrecked sailors sometimes found their cats helping them forage for food.

Several famous shipboard cats are mentioned. “Unsinkable Sam,” a perhaps mythic feline is said to have survived the sinking of the Bismarck, then that of the British destroyer Cossack, and finally that of the British aircraft carrier Ark Royal. HMS Victory’s “Minnie” served 14 years, during which she birthed 113 kittens, most of whom joined the service, while HMS Amethyst’s “Simon” received the Dickin Medal and other honors for his service during the ship’s ordeal on the Yangtze under Red Chinese fire in April, 1949.

Cats in the Navy is a delightful, and informative look at the role of cats at sea.

---///---

StrategyPage reviews are published in cooperation with The New York Military Affairs Symposium

www.nymas.org