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MurdochsAid
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Ships' Cats in the White Star Line
Wills & Lights, since you two are a pair of cat lovers, I just know that you will love reading these two feline stowaway stories...
STOWAWAY CATS SAIL TO EUROPE ON ARABIC
The New York Times, 30 March 1930
Feline Pirates Grab Watchman's Herring, Raid Crew's Galley--Face British Quartantine
Before the White Star liner Arabic sailed yesterday for Liverpool, the crew made futile search above and below decks for two of the pirate cats from the Chelsea (sic) piers which got on board Friday night. There is a penality of $500 for taking a cat into England under the new law, unless the foreign animal stays in quarantine for six months. Fidd said the cats stole his supper, a Bismarck herring, and bolted up the gangway when he chased them. One was Tumtum, a pink cat from Formosa, and the other Cheechee, a Calcutta cat which had its tail chopped off by a jungle wallah in the Red Bazaar, the watchman said. He said they were the toughest among the pirate cats along the Chelsea pier.
The cats made themselves known on board the Arabic early yesterday morning by stealing two red herrings from the crew galley which the cook had reserved for the  wain's mate's breakfast. He chased them around the decks with a potato masher, but they eluded him. The watchman said he reported the incident to Colonel Jack O'Neill, pier superintendent, who expressed his sympathy by saying: "If you go putting Bismarck herring down where hungry cats are around it's like asking for it."
This cute little story was posted by Mark Baber in THS's internet discussion group and the perfect lead in for this feature story on ship's cats. (c) The TITANIC COMMUTATOR, Volume 30 - Number 174 - 2006
Last edited by MurdochsAid, Nov/26/2006, 2:51 pm
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Nov/3/2006, 10:15 pm
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MurdochsAid
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Re: Ships' Cats in the White Star Line
AristoCATS of the HIGH SEAS
Time is running out for Britain's seafaring cat population. Victims of the anti-rabies campaign, their carefree nautical careers are doomed. What remains of their mythical "nine lives" will be spent ashore.
The General Council of British Shipping in agreement with the National Maritime Board has ordered that all shipboard pets must be humanely disposed of by the end of next March. This decision will mark the end of an age-old seafaring tradition going back to wooden ships when cats were an essential part of a ship's company, their job being to destroy rats, mice and other rodents running amok below deck.
While shipowners will doubless take effective measures to see tha the instruction is complied with, it will be interesting to see how they tackle the problem of preventing dockside cats from following their natural instincts and stowing away in ships about to leave port. These seafaring cats are a race apart--far removed from the domestic sleek tabbies and neutered Toms of the species smugly purring in the softest chair and fussing over the brands of tinned food bought for their delight. Grizzled and fight-scarred veterans, they belong to that select company of feline tramps who know no nationality, are acquainted with every inch of the world's waterfronts and yet often have a curious allegiance to the ships in which they voyage.
One memorable cat was Doodles, the ship's cat born 1927 on board Cedric. For five years Doodles remained faithful to her floating home during which she traveled over 360,000 miles and became a great favourite with the crew. At the end of 1931 Cedric was withdrawn from service and sold for scrap. On January 11, 1932 the ship was managed by a skeleton crew and about to leave Gladstone Dock for her final voyage to the breakers yard at Inverkeithing, Doodles was missing. It was only when Cedric was well out to sea did she creep from her hiding place.
Throughout the months Cedric was being taken apart the faithful Doodles wandered disconsolately around the yard, watching the only home she had ever known being dismantled piece by piece. Fortunately for Doodles, the problem of what was to become of her was resolved when she was adopted by Mr. H. Hutton and given a nice home in his hotel at Bamford, Derbyshire.
Nor was that the end of the Doodles saga. A few months after her retirement she was visited by former Cedric crew members who, to mark their affection for their pet and, as a token of their respect for her devotion to the liner, made a special presentation. It was a red leather collar with two white stars and a brass plate with the inscription: "I am Doodles. I was born in 1927 on the White Star liner Cedric in which I travelled over 360,000 miles."
Jack Vincent sent this story from the Liverpool Echo Weekend by Tom Hughes many years ago.
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Nov/3/2006, 10:40 pm
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wills
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Re: Ships' Cats in the White Star Line
Those are cute stories thanks for sharing..
I am not only a cat lover but I am a doggy lover too. have you read my letter I wrote to my late companion yet Tammy?
you can find it here at the link below.
something new added to the end of the letter
---
Suicide is a permenant solution to a temporay problem........
Whatever obstacles control,
Go on, true heart,
thou'lt reach the goal.
http://com4.runboard.com/bthetitanicshack
wills~~~~~
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Nov/4/2006, 2:39 am
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wolfldy1877
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Re: Ships' Cats in the White Star Line
Greetings,
Cool stories. Thanks for listening. TTYL, Laters.
From,
Robert
---
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
-- William Shedd
"Live the journey, for every destination is but a doorway to another." From Masters of the Universe
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Nov/4/2006, 4:13 am
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MurdochsAid
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Re: Ships' Cats in the White Star Line
quote:
wills wrote:
Those are cute stories thanks for sharing..
I am not only a cat lover but I am a doggy lover too. have you read my letter I wrote to my late companion yet Tammy?
you can find it here at the link below.
something new added to the end of the letter
I'm very thrilled that you enjoyed the above The TITANIC COMMUTATOR excerpts feline stories. Somehow I just knew you would appreciate them.
Thank you, for pointing that out to me. I read your beautiful poem with great interest, and it certainly hits a familiar cord with me...especially with the way I untentionally treated my King towards the end of his life.
I also left a little story there about the correlation story between Little House's Jack, and my King coincidental passings. I shall have to post a picture of King for you all to see too. Okay?
MA
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Nov/4/2006, 3:24 pm
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MurdochsAid
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Re: Ships' Cats in the White Star Line
Now, let's give dogs a chance here...
The DOGS on BOARD TITANIC
by Marty Crisp
Author's note: While researching for a book I'm writing, I also gathered information on the dogs who were likely to have been aboard. I stumbled upon, Violet Jessop's book, "Titanic Survivor" the fact there was a cat who had kittens onboard and a young man named Jim, who took care of the little cat family.
Owner: Robert William Daniel, 27, Philadelphia, banker, travelling alone.
Breed and name: French bulldog, Gamin de Pycombe
Port of Embarkation: Southampton
Stateroom Number: unknown
Lifeboat Number: Went down with the ship and was pulled aboard a lifeboat.
Determination: Daniel survived. Bulldog was seen in the water by R N Williams.
Owner: Henry Sleeper Harper, 48, NYC, publisher, travelling with his wife, Myra, 49, a manservant and an Egyptian dragoman.
Breed and name: Pekinese, Sun Yat Sen
Port of Embarkation: Cherbourg
Stateroom Number: D33
Lifeboat Number: All people escaped in #3.
Determination: same
Owner: Helen Bishop, 19, Dowagiac, Michigan, honeymooning with husband, ****inson H Bishop.
Breed and name: Small dog, breed unknown, Frou Frou
Port of Embarkation: Cherbourg
Stateroom Number: B49
Lifeboat Number: 7
Determination: Bishops survived, dog was left in stateroom.
Owner: Harry Anderson, 47, NYC, stockbroker, travelling alone.
Breed and name: Chow
Port of Embarkation: Southampton
Stateroom Number: E12
Lifeboat Number: 3
Determination: Anderson saved, dog perished.
Owner: Margaret hays, 24, NYC, travelling alone.
Breed and name: Pomeranian
Port of Embarkation: Cherbourg
Stateroom Number: C54
Lifeboat Number: 7
Determination: She survived.
Owner: William Ernest Carter, 36, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, travelling with wife, Lucile, 36, daughter, Lucile, 14, son William II, 11. Also a maid and manservant.
Breed and name: Airdale and King Charles Spaniel
Port of Embarkation: Southampton
Stateroom Number: B96 and B98
Lifeboat Number: Collapsible C
Determination: All family members survived, dogs perished.
(TBC)
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Nov/5/2006, 2:12 am
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MurdochsAid
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Re: Ships' Cats in the White Star Line
I also came across a story by Anne Hailes in the Irish News, based in Belfast, detailing how a cat was aboard for the trials but got off in Southampton before the ship sailed. The details came from an interview with 92-year-old retired journalist, Paddy Scott, who watched the Titanic leave Belfast as a five-year-old. Fascinated all his life by the story of the disaster, Scott later became a reporter for the Irish News and jumped at the chance in the 1930s, to interview a man named Mulholland who claimed he had been a stoker who was onboard working during the Titanic's trials and down to Southampton. The man said that he had cared for the ship's cat and her four kittens who were born on board. When the cat carried her babies off the ship, he thought to himself, "that cat knows something."
The poem that follows is based on those two sources and provides what little is known of the cat's story.
Titanicat
When men go down to the sea in ships,
As they do, to this very day,
they carry along a good ship's cat,
To keep the rats at bay.
One such cat, at the Belfast yard,
Had kittens while on board.
The date was April 1912,
Anno Domini, year of our Lord.
Now the ship was new, and the crew was, too,
So a trial run was deemed fair.
And the scullion lad, whose name was Jim,
Wound up with the tabby's care.
In the F Deck galley Jim scoured and scrubbed,
His job was to bow and bend,
But he saved the scraps from every meal
For the cat that he now called a friend.
They circled the coast 'till their anchor dropped
At the port of the White Star Line,
Where the ship was loaded with lobster and steak,
And silver and crystal and wine.
The cat seemed troubled when the trials were done,
Though she loved her life on the ship.
With kittens in tow, she disembarked,
Refusing to make this trip.
She carried her babies, one by one,
Down the gangplank to the quay,
Two thousand passengers clambered aboard,
But the cat went the other way.
Jim followed his firend and he left that ship
About to sail the Atlantic.
He bid farewell to the maiden voyage
Of the RMS Titanic.
When Jim tells the tale of that wise old cat,
He gets naught but a sneer and a scoff.
Over one thousand drowned when that ship went down.
But Jim and the cat got off.
Down with the ship that fateful night,
Went fathers and sons and wives,
But the cat saved Jim by lending him,
One of her own nine lives.
(c)The TITANIC COMMUTATOR, Volume 23 - Number 147 - 1999
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Nov/5/2006, 2:34 am
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wolfldy1877
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Re: Ships' Cats in the White Star Line
Greetings,
Cool stories, I mean I am an animal lover as most people. Thanks for listening. TTYL, Laters.
From,
Robert
---
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
-- William Shedd
"Live the journey, for every destination is but a doorway to another." From Masters of the Universe
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Nov/5/2006, 3:41 am
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MurdochsAid
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Re: Ships' Cats in the White Star Line
You're most welcome, Robert. I'm glad that you enjoy them. Shall try to keep them coming, as I scower my copies of these TITANIC COMMUTATORS. 
MA
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Nov/5/2006, 4:24 am
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wolfldy1877
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Re: Ships' Cats in the White Star Line
Greetings,
Cool. I look forward to it. Thanks for listening. TTYL, Laters.
From,
Robert
---
"A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for."
-- William Shedd
"Live the journey, for every destination is but a doorway to another." From Masters of the Universe
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Nov/5/2006, 4:42 am
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