National Geographic: The Forgotten History of Cats in the Navy

 


The forgotten history of cats in the navy


Sailors embraced their feline colleagues, giving them tiny uniforms and their very own hammocks. But cats are natural outlaws—so it couldn’t last forever.

By Scot Christenson
April 12, 2023

They had names such as Tom the Terror, Wockle, Bounce, and Dirty Face. They traveled thousands of miles on the most storied warships with some of the saltiest sailors. They were valued members of the crew, often issued custom miniature uniforms and their own tiny hammocks. Many never set a paw on dry land during their entire lives. They were the cats that served in the world’s navies.

Cats have been on ships for almost as long as humans have been going to sea, and sailors have been largely responsible for spreading cats across the globe. Ancient Egyptian tomb paintings depict cats hunting from boats sailing down the Nile, while Phoenicians recognized the value of controlling the rodent population on their ships as they traded throughout the Mediterranean.

Rats and mice were a major problem on ships because they ruined the crew’s food, chewed through equipment, and spread disease. Cats, with their predatory prowess, were a cheap and effective solution to any vermin infestation. The U.S. government, in an effort to protect documents from nesting rats, began to purchase clowders of cats in the 19th century, eventually supplying them to the U.S. Navy. In the United Kingdom, one of the earliest and largest cat rescue programs occurred during the First World War, when thousands of strays were rounded up in cities and given to the military. The cats supplied to the Royal Navy even received a weekly “victualing allowance” of 1 shilling and 6 pence to pay for treats from the ship’s canteen.

Angels, devils, and ‘furry barometers’

Early sailors believed that cats could control the weather with their tails. When feline tails twitched in a certain manner, people once reasoned, it meant the cats were angry and preparing to unleash a violent storm that would soon fall over the ship. Later sailors realized that cats twitched their tales when they were agitated by a sudden drop in air pressure, indicating that the ship was heading into unfavorable weather. Crews began to monitor all the mannerism of their ship’s cats and viewed any unusual behavior as a storm warning. The felines were, in a sense, little furry barometers.


Note:  The above comes directly from their website.  Click here to read more.

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