The Lives of Ship's Cats

Champion Rodent Killers

Mice and rats are always a problem on ships, they nibble at woodwork, electrical wiring, and ropes, eat the food of passengers and crew as well as grain cargo. And, they carry diseases.

Most cats sleep 12 to 20 hours a day, which leaves little time for rodent hunting aboard ships at sea. However, Mrs. Chippy, Blackie, Unsinkable Sam, and other legendary felines found tenured employment in the pest control business.

Mrs. Chippy

Ernest Shackleton planned to cross the Antarctic ice shield in 1914, but nature dictated otherwise. His ship, the Endurance, carried 29 men, 70 husky dogs, and one cat, Mrs. Chippy.

The cat belonged to Harry McNish (sometime McNeish), the ship's carpenter. Colloquially, the British called carpenters “Chippies,” so McNish's cat became Mrs. Chippy. However, on close inspection, Mrs. Chippy turned out to be a Mr. Chippy but, by the time his gender was revealed, the name had stuck.

Mrs. Chippy enjoyed the seafaring life until disaster struck; the Endurance became trapped in ice in November 1914 and was crushed. Shackleton ordered the crew to abandon ship and to set up a survival camp. But, there was no room for Mrs. Chippy or the dogs. On October 29, 1915, Shackleton wrote:

“This afternoon Sallie's three youngest pups, Sue's Sirius, and Mrs. Chippy, the carpenter's cat, have to be shot. We could not undertake the maintenance of weaklings under the new conditions. Macklin, Crean (dog handlers), and the carpenter seemed to feel the loss of their friends rather badly.”

Through heroic efforts, the entire crew was saved, but Harry McNish never forgave Shackleton for ordering the killing of his beloved kitty.

Royal Navy Cats

In 1975, the Royal Navy issued an order that no more moggies were to be allowed aboard Her Majesty's vessels; it was a hygiene issue said the armchair admirals. Many sailors felt it was a sad directive that devalued the service of several animals.

• Convoy sailed aboard the light cruiser HMS Hermione on convoy escort duty—hence his name. He was issued a full able seaman's kit and a little hammock for him to enjoy his frequent snoozes. In June 1942, HMS Hermione was torpedoed by a German U-boat in the Mediterranean and sunk. Convoy perished along with 88 crew members.

Recommended

Emily Dickinson's "If those I loved were lost"

• Tiddles had a much better war aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Victorious. He took part in several pivotal actions and was even loaned to the U.S. Navy along with the vessel on which he lived. During his naval career he travelled more than 30,000 miles.
• Simon served heroically aboard HMS Amethyst when the ship was shelled by Communist Chinese shore batteries in the Yangtze River in 1949. Simon was wounded and nursed back to health while HMS Amethyst was held hostage. His commanding officer noted that “Simon’s company and expertise as a rat-catcher were invaluable during the months we were held captive.” He was given the rank of Able Seacat.
• Peebles was a feline aboard the anti-submarine flagship HMS Western Isles. He was a cat that liked to perform tricks such as jumping through hoops and shaking hands/paws.

Civilian Seagoing Cats

Cats have been sailing companions since they were first domesticated about 10,000 years ago. (Although, there's a body of opinion, put about by kitties, that it was them who domesticated humans to attend to their needs long, long ago.) We have no records of feline escapades at sea until relatively recently.

• Chibley circumnavigated the world several times aboard the sail training ship Picton Castle. Trudi Inglis who sailed with her out of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia wrote that she “was pure 100% cat, but oh, what a cat! She certainly was some kinda person, a small furry one to be sure, but determined, keenly intelligent, resourceful, adaptable, wicked smart, soft, cuddly and very much of her ship and her shipmates—and this ain’t no anthropo-whatever.” She makes an appearance in this video.

• Aussie sailed aboard the RMS Niagara, an ocean liner travelling in the Pacific. In the middle of June 1940, Niagara was leaving the harbour of Aukland, New Zealand when she hit a mine that had been laid by a German ship. Everyone aboard, including Aussie, successfully got into the ship's lifeboats before the vessel sank. However, the cat jumped back aboard the sinking liner. A few days later, a cat answering Aussie's description came ashore on a piece of driftwood.
• Emmy only missed a single voyage aboard her liner home, the Empress of Ireland. The vessel was moored at Quebec City in May 1914 when she jumped ship. She was found but left again. The Empress of Ireland departed without her and sailed into thick fog in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. She collided with a Norwegian freighter and sank, taking more than 1,000 people to their watery graves. Did Emmy have some sort of premonition of the disaster? There is a similar unsubstantiated story about a cat named Jenny leaving the Titanic with her kittens before the ship sailed from Southampton.

Bonus Factoids

• When the Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower, crossed the Atlantic in 1957, Felix the cat was aboard. He became a celebrity in the United States through coverage in Life and National Geographic. He even took part in the ticker-tape parade in New York City.
• Unsinkable Sam had a charmed life, surviving the sinking of three navy vessels. You can read more about him here.
• Social media has been spreading a story since July 2021 that seagoing cats had passports—although surely, that should be passpawts. It seems highly unlikely that this is a thing but nothing will stop the story spreading once it has been released onto Facebook and the like.

Sources

• “The Adventures of Mrs. Chippy, Shackleton’s Seafaring Cat.” Lucy Davidson, historyhit.com, February 14, 2022.
• “HISTORY: Cats in the Navy.” Ryan White, navalpost.com, March 1, 2021.
• “Cats at Sea: 7 Famous Seafaring Felines.” Melissa Breyer, treehugger.com, February 17, 2023.
• “Simon, of HMS Amethyst.” Patrick Roberts, purr-n-fur.org.uk, December 2003.
• “The Niagara's Cat.” New Zealand Herald, July 2, 1940.
• “Chibley of the Picton Castle – A Seagoing Cat From Lunenburg.” Trudi Inglis, picton-castle.com, November 11, 2011.
• “Ship’s Cats in Folklore and Legend.” zteve t evans, folklorethursday.com, August 8, 2019.

This content is accurate and true to the best of the author’s knowledge and is not meant to substitute for formal and individualized advice from a qualified professional.

© 2023 Rupert Taylor