Cats do not have a natural or important place in mankind's wars in the same way as dogs, horses and some other animals do, since (as cat owners will know!) it is very difficult to get a cat to do what you want. There were stories that the Americans tried to use cats during the Vietnam war, but they were too easily distracted and either started playing or disappeared into the jungle. However, these tales are apocryphal. During the nineteenth century it is said that the Belgians tried using cats to deliver letters, but with a marked lack of success.

There is one function that cats have fulfilled since time immemorial, though, and that is as ship's cats, where they kept the vessel's stores free from rodents and also acted as mascots and companions to the crew. They were especially important in wartime, when supplies could be short, and men were far from home for extended periods and welcomed feline companionship. Sadly, since 1975 the British Royal Navy has banned cats, and indeed all animals, from its ships. It's a far cry from the days of Louis XIV's French Navy in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when it is reported that all French ships were ordered to carry two cats for rodent-control duties.

Many of these wartime tales are short and without photos, as they date from decades ago now; information is sparse and snippets have been gleaned from many sources.

A memorial to all the animals that have been caught up and have suffered in human wars has been erected in England, in London's Park Lane. Read more about the Animals in War Memorial and see some photographs.

War at Sea

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Cats, being attached to a territory as much as to people, are better mascots for a ship's company — or perhaps for an air-force base — than they are for an army regiment which is likely to be on the move for much of the time during war. The story of Simon of HMS Amethyst is well known and it seems likely that one reason he didn't survive in quarantine was simply that he pined so much for his ship and his friends on board. Some ships had more than one cat (and many kittens were born at sea); and ship's cats were able to, as it were, 'rise through the ranks' to become the mascot of a particular part of a ship, such as the engine room or one of the mess-decks, before going on to maybe ultimately become the 'official' mascot of the whole vessel.

From the many stories involving cats at sea during wartime, here are some we have come across. They are largely from Britain and World War 2, and are in alphabetical order of the ships; however, British Admiralty documents from World War 1 show significant sums paid out during that conflict, too, for the annual maintenance of cats to keep down rats on board ship.

   HMS Anson

The claim to fame of Annie, wardroom cat of this battleship, was the number of kittens she produced during an especially long voyage. Presumably there was at least one tomcat aboard too — but when the vessel finally returned to port there were found to be more than 50 kittens, mostly looking remarkably like Annie!

   HMS Argonaut

Ship's cat Minnie of the cruiser Argonaut was one of the most travelled of naval cats. She joined the crew early in 1944 from Tyneside, in north-east England, and among many other pets that came and went she stood out and became indisputably 'the ship's cat'. A bit of a loner, she took no special friends and seemed to regard the whole ship as her domain; she'd sleep on the mess-decks just as happily as in the captain's cabin. Minnie was a tabby, with immaculate white paws and breast. Her first action was at the D-Day invasion of the Normandy beaches, where none of the pandemonium appeared to affect her routine of sleeping, eating and doing her rounds. Subsequently she sailed with Argonaut to the French Riviera; to Palermo, in Sicily; Colombo and Trincomalee in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka); the Dutch East Indies; Sydney and Fremantle in Australia; several of the larger Pacific island groups; and when news of the Japanese surrender was received in 1945, her ship was off Tokyo.

Lengthy peacetime voyages then followed; but after 2½ years 'before the mast' Minnie disappeared while the ship was in Singapore. She had previously gone missing in Hong Kong, where she was eventually found aboard another warship in the harbour — so it is thought she may have become fed up with Argonaut's long and monotonous voyages and sought adventure elsewhere. The ship waited until the last minute before having to sail without her, and she was sorely missed. A signal was sent to the Commander of the naval base to request her return to the UK if found — but she never was.

   HMS Aurora

Aurora carried among her armaments four of the 4-inch quickfire guns shown in the photo, which dates from 1914 while the ship was in dry dock at Devonport during her commissioning period. The kitten, name unknown, is sitting on the gun's loading tray.
Image: National Maritime Museum, London

   HMS Barham

This battleship was launched in 1914 and commissioned the following year. The image of the kitten (centre) seen apparently hanging onto the ship's bell for dear life is used by courtesy of the HMS Barham Association. Later, perhaps in 1916, there appear to have been both a ship's dog and a ship's cat (outer), who were evidently friendly enough to have their photo taken together. Barham went on to see service in the Second World War but was was sunk by a U-boat in 1941.
Cat/dog image © and reproduced by kind permission of the National Maritime Museum, London.

   HMS Belfast

The light cruiser Belfast, launched in 1938, had a cat on board in 1942/3 called Frankenstein. The photo shows sailors with a young cat, which may be Frankenstein, on the starboard side of 'A' turret in about 1942.

Belfast survived through the war and beyond, being decommissioned in 1963. A campaign to save her from being scrapped and preserve her for the nation was ultimately successful, and since 1971 she has been moored and open as a museum on the River Thames, close to the Tower of London. From time to time until the fairly recent past the museum also had ship's cats aboard, although since a nasty incident in 2008 when one was thrown overboard (and, in an unrelated development, his companion subsequently went missing) a decision was made not to replace them. Instead a tableau shows a cat protecting ship's stores by catching a rat.
Image © and reproduced by kind permission of the Imperial War Museum, London

   Bismarck

The tale goes as follows . . .

The German battleship was sunk on 27 May 1941. Of more than 2200 men on board, only 116 survived, together with Oscar, the ship's cat (or Oskar, to use the German spelling). He was picked up by the British destroyer HMS Cossack, but she too was torpedoed a few months later, on 24 October, with the loss of 159 lives. Attempts to rescue the ship failed, and she was abandoned and sank two days later. Oscar survived again, was taken to Gibraltar, and was then taken on by HMS Ark Royal. His stay there was even shorter, as the aircraft carrier was torpedoed by U-81 on 13 November, eventually capsizing and sinking only 30 miles (50 km) from Gibraltar.

Yet again Oscar was lucky — but there were no more ships for him, as it was decided that his presence was certainly not lucky! By now known as Unsinkable Sam, this great survivor among cats stayed as mouse-catcher in the Governor General of Gibraltar's office buildings until he was taken by a brave ship to Belfast, in Northern Ireland (although some reports say Plymouth). There he lived until his death in 1955, at the Home for Sailors. A portrait of him has a place of honour in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, on the River Thames near London.

   HMS Black Prince

Her ship's cat, named Beauty, was another feline present at the D-Day landings. While the ship's guns were busy bombarding the Normandy coast, Beauty chose to give birth to three healthy kittens. The captain, impressed, said that she 'carried on with magnificent indifference to her surroundings'.

   HMS Bramble

A minesweeper in the early years of WW2, with two ship's cats, Ginger and Minnie. The ship was sunk by German action during the Battle of the Barents Sea on 31 December 1942, while she was on convoy-escort duty to Russia. All 121 crew, and presumably the cats, were lost, and the wreckage of the ship was never found.

   HMS Bulldog

Smokey was ship's mascot here, and had her moment of fame when the battleship, one of two — the other was HMS Beagle — sailed to the Channel Islands in 1945 to accept the surrender of the German occupation forces there. As the ship approached the waterfront, which was lined by wildly cheering islanders, Smokey was sitting at one of her vantage points watching the scene with interest. A BBC radio commentator, reporting the event to the world, noticed her and referred to her presence as 'a symbol of the importance servicemen and -women attached to their animal friends'. Subsequently thousands of eager listeners wrote in to enquire about her.

   ORP Burza
[ORP is 'Okret Rzeczypospolitej', or 'ship of the Polish Republic'; Burza translates as Tempest.]

Shortly before WW2, after a visit to the Hei naval base in Poland, the Chief Petty Officer of Burza reported to the captain that a new crew member, with a nice fur uniform, had joined the ship. The captain said that was a good sign. The ship then sailed for Great Britain, along with two other Polish destroyers, and when war was declared soon afterwards they came under the command of the British Admiralty. The cat, now named Kicia, was living in a petty officer's quarters near the bow of the ship — and one day produced six tiny kittens. But then not long afterwards, following a heavy storm, she moved them all one by one, along practically the length of the ship and across wet and slippery decks, to a cabin at the stern belonging to a Georgian officer, Lt Tumaniszwili, where she deposited them in a drawer of clean laundry.

A few days later Burza was engaged in action off Calais, during which HMS Wessex was sunk. Burza shot down two Stuka dive-bombers, but received a hit on her bows. The petty officer's quarters where Kicia had her kittens was completely destroyed. Cat's intuition? The story parallels that of London church cat Faith.

(Many thanks to Bartlomiej Blaszkowski for sending us this account. He was in touch with Jerzy Tumaniszwili, who was living in the US with his cat Roscoe.)

   HMS Chester

The ship took part in the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. On board were the ship's cat Hoskyn and the captain's sheepdog, the latter being wounded during the action. After the battle Surgeon Lieutenant Brownfield of the ship's medical staff was presented with this cushion cover picturing Hoskyn, embroidered by one of the crew.
Image © and reproduced by kind permission of the National Maritime Museum, London

   HMAT Demosthenes

This was a WW1 troopship, perhaps formerly the White Star liner of that name. The photograph shows members of the Australian Army 15th Battalion leaving Australia for England on the ship on 20 December 1916. A soldier in the front row is holding a cat.
Image: Australian War Memorial

   HMS Dreadnought

Entering service in 1906, Dreadnought was the first of a new and revolutionary class of battleships in terms of speed and armament. In common with many naval ships of the time she had a ship's cat, called Scatters, seen here posing in one of the 12-inch guns.
Image: National Maritime Museum at Facebook

   HMS Duke of York

The German battle cruiser Scharnhorst was sunk on Boxing Day 1943 by Duke of York and other Royal Navy ships; out of the German crew of almost 2000 there were but 36 survivors. Whisky, the tabby mascot of Duke of York, slept through the whole of the action; after all, it was time for her afternoon nap, so that's what she did! She had a reputation as a formidable ratcatcher when she was awake.

   HMS Eagle

Eagle had this kitten who, like a number of ship's cats, relaxed in his own hammock made by the vessel's sail-maker. The photo dates from about 1945.
Image © Imperial War Museum, London

   Empire Winnie

This was a steam rescue tug with two mascots: tomcat Tommy and black female Lucky. They had no problems with being at sea, and made numerous trips between Normandy and the Channel ports on D-Day and afterwards. By Christmas of 1944, though, the ship was due for a refit and the crew for some shore leave; she returned to her base on Tyneside, and a watchman from ashore was engaged to 'keep an eye' and look after the cats. But Lucky seemed to miss her crewmates, and not long before they were due to return, she abandoned ship and disappeared; extensive searches of the dockyard area failed to find her. The men were very upset, as she had been very popular as well as being an excellent ratcatcher. Tom was also highly thought of, but unfortunately they lost him too, as he was not aboard when the tug was called out suddenly on an urgent mission. Later it was discovered that he had joined another tug — or possibly had been 'coaxed' aboard — and he was thought to have continued going to sea.

   HMAS Encounter

A cruiser built in Britain early in the twentieth century and transferred into the Australian Navy in 1912. She took part in WW1, which she survived. Her ship's cat, name unknown, is seen here sitting in the muzzle of one of the ship's 6-inch guns.
Image: Australian War Memorial

   HMS Exeter

The ship's cat of this heavy cruiser was Scouse, a handsome white with ginger and tabby blotches, reported later to have joined the ship in 1939 as a stowaway in Bermuda. There's a fine painting of Scouse in the National Maritime Museum, but we are unable to reproduce it here owing to copyright difficulties.

Exeter took part in the action that resulted in the scuttling of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee off South America, in December 1939. Suffering extensive damage and heavy casualties, Exeter was nevertheless able to return to Plymouth for a refit by February 1940, to a rousing welcome led by Winston Churchill, then First Lord of Admiralty. Scouse (one or two references quote his name as 'Pincher') is seen here disembarking on that occasion with Herbert Chalkley, who was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal following the action, for his efforts in saving human lives — and it was Herbert who had rescued the cat too.

Sadly, Scouse's arrival in Britain did not herald a happy new life. He was stolen at Plymouth shortly after Exeter's homecoming, but was recovered later from a cellar by a crew member searching for him. Then, in company with the ship's canary, he was taken to stay at the London home of artist Mrs G Shaw Baker, who painted the portrait noted previously. The plan was to produce two paintings of the mascots, one for presentation to Exeter and the other to be sold in aid of the fund for dependants of crewmen who had died in the River Plate action.

According to one interview with Mrs Shaw Baker, on arrival at her home Scouse was already showing signs of being unwell, and he continued to deteriorate despite efforts to make him comfortable. A vet was called and treatment given, but he died soon afterwards, in mid-March 1940. A theory put forward was that having come from much warmer climes, he had succumbed to the colder climate of a British winter, having already possibly been weakened by his ordeal when stolen. The painting was nevertheless able to be completed, the artist having done preliminary sketches and taken some photographs. Press reports seen spelled Scouse's name as 'Skeuse'.

Thanks to Jim Winchell for originally sending an image of Scouse.

   HMS Gentian

In 1940 this corvette was on duty in the north Atlantic, with the crew on constant alert for submarines. One calm day when no shipping was apparent, a disturbance was seen in the water — and it turned out to be a kitten, swimming for its life. It was scooped out of the water in a net and became the ship's cat. No one knew how a kitten came to be swimming alone in the ocean, but presumably it must have fallen from a ship, or perhaps was a survivor from one that had been sunk. Whatever the case, it certainly used up some of its lives that day!

(Thanks to Amanda Woolley for the story: her father was on board Gentian when the incident took place.)

   HMS Hawkins

We'll squeeze in this delightful pair, possibly siblings, who were ship's cats on board the light cruiser, although actually the ship was built in 1917 and did not see service in WW1. She served on the China Station in 1919-20 as the flagship of the Commander-in-Chief. From a verse in the ship's magazine of the time, one of the cats was called Tibby, but we don't know which one or the name of the other.
Image © and reproduced by kind permission of the National Maritime Museum, London

   HMS Haydon

This was a Hunt class escort destroyer of the Royal Navy, launched in 1943 and named after a foxhunt in the northern English county Northumberland (now Northumbria). That would explain the fox's head trophy, which was presented to the ship by the hunt and was hung in the wardroom. The scene on the image shows Able Seaman Rogers giving the fox its weekly grooming, supervised with great interest by ship's cat Torps (short for 'Torpedo') and it was taken in Taranto, Italy while Haydon was on duties in the eastern Mediterranean following the surrender of Italy. She survived the war and was scrapped in 1958.

   HMS Hermione

This anti-aircraft cruiser was launched in 1939, and went into service a few months later with ship's cat Convoy, seen here in his hammock during November 1941 while the ship was docked in Gibraltar. Convoy had full kit and was listed in the ship's book. He was so called because of the number of times he had accompanied the ship on convoy patrol. Unfortunately Hermione was sunk by U-205 in the eastern Mediterranean in June 1944 and presumably the cat perished.
Images © Imperial War Museum (1) (2), London

   SS Hjalmar Wessel

This was a Norwegian cargo ship during WW2 and had a ship's cat known simply as Puss. She was determined to go ashore at every port where the ship docked but, as with some other ship's cats, she had an amazing homing instinct and the uncanny ability to arrive back on board shortly before sailing time. In the latter part of 1943 the ship was on convoy duties ferrying war goods between Italy and North Africa; to her disgust Puss was often shut up in a cabin when docked in Italy, because the local population was starving and it was feared she would be abducted and made into a tasty meal for someone.

One day when about to leave the port of Algiers the unthinkable happened and Puss had not returned to her ship. They delayed as long as possible, but eventually had to leave without her. Several round trips were made between Algiers and various Italian ports, until one day they were due to dock at Bari — but Bari had been bombed the previous day, many ships sunk and crew and civilians killed. The Hjalmar Wessel was diverted instead to Barletta. While it was docked there, sailor George Barrat was leaning over the ship's rail when he was astonished to see the lost cat Puss crawling weakly up the gangway, exhausted and much the worse for wear. She made it up to the deck, and was found to have a nasty wound on her back. They were unable to do much for her; her special friend the chief engineer, whom she used to follow around the ship, took her to his cabin, where she died next day. She was treated as any dead shipmate would have been, and consigned to the sea with a prayer.

How did she get to Barletta from Algiers? — presumably she had hitched a ride on another ship. How did she find the Hjalmar Wessel? It was uncanny. And had the ship arrived at Bari a day earlier, it would have been blown to smithereens.

Information about the Hjalmar Wessel's war service can be seen at WarSailors.com.

   HMS Hood

When commissioned in 1920 the battleship Hood was the largest warship afloat. Over the years she had a number of mascots of varying species, including a wallaby, a macaw — and these two fine felines, known as Ginger and Fishcakes. Ginger was a large, ginger-and-white male and Fishcakes a smaller 'tuxedo' cat. Although Ginger, at least, is known to have been aboard throughout the 1930s, not much else is known about them. It is also not known for sure whether they were still aboard the ship at the time of its loss in 1941; Ginger would have been relatively old by then so might have died beforehand. The latest known photo of Fishcakes was taken aboard the ship in late 1940, so it is quite likely that he did perish with the ship, the sinking of which was accompanied by huge loss of human life. The larger image of Ginger alone (centre) was taken on board while Hood was in the Mediterranean Fleet, probably during the late 1930s.

Photos of the cats seated on the guns are © and the property of the Willis family, and all photos reproduced with the kind permission of the HMS Hood Association are as marked.

   HMS Irresistible

This is Togo of the battleship Irresistible, posing in the muzzle of a 12-inch gun in 1905 (top). The photo and accompanying details were kindly sent to us by Robert W. Green. Mr Green's grandfather, William Thomas Clegg, AB, served on the Irresistible between July 1905 and the end of 1906, and apart from his assigned duties as a gun layer it was his responsibility to look after the ship's mascot, 'Ordinary Sea Cat Togo' (a title written by AB Clegg on the back of the photo). Togo certainly qualifies as a wartime cat, because he remained with the ship until she was sunk by a mine off the Turkish coast during the Dardanelles engagement in 1915. Leading Stoker William Burrows made a heroic attempt to save the cat, but sadly both he and Togo drowned. The second photo also from Mr Green, shows Togo to better effect, and he was clearly a very handsome cat.

   SS Julia

The Julia was one of only two Belgian merchant ships to take part in the 1944 D-Day landings of WW2, when she carried munitions, explosives and a New York infantry division for Omaha beach. Ship's cat Peggy was black and white, and had a canine pal in the captain's dog, Mireau. Very shy at first, Peggy felt at home with the crew before long, but her best friend was Mireau. (The dog later went missing when the Julia berthed in England, but was found in Portsmouth.) Both animals were terrified by all the noise and hid during the invasion. Our photo shows Peggy in the arms of Robert van Damme, Julia's first officer, before D-Day; we are indebted to his daughter Jeanine Hardcastle, of Brussels, for passing it on together with information about the ship.

   SS Jupiter

Later renamed Democracy, the SS Jupiter was an American cargo ship built in 1917. Later that year she transported World War 1 cargo, and while doing so she carried a Naval Armed Guard unit. The photo shows a J.E. Hall with the ship's cats, Snow and Mouse.
Source: US Navy's Naval History and Heritage Command

   HMAS Kanimbla

A WW2 landing craft. The cat's name is not recorded, but as with many naval felines a dedicated hammock went with the job, and the occupant certainly looks relaxed!
Image: Australian War Memorial

   HMS Kelvin

The kitten pictured in 1941 was the ship's cat of Kelvin, which was a K-class destroyer launched in January 1939. One short but quite important role the ship fulfilled later on in the war was to carry Winston Churchill and various dignitaries across the Channel to Normandy shortly after Operation Overlord, the 1944 D-Day landings. She was scrapped in 1949.
Image © Imperial War Museum, London. Their description notes that the kitten was born in the wardrobe of an officer's cabin.

   HMS King George V

The battleship that sailed at the head of Britain's Grand Fleet to the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. On board was ship's cat Jimmy, a large, long-haired, tortoiseshell type who had been adopted by one of the ship's cooks when his former owner, an Australian soldier, had been wounded and was no longer able to look after him. Jimmy suffered severe damage to his left ear when a shell exploded near him on deck and he was hit by a piece of shrapnel. Later he was transferred to HMS Renown (see entry with photo below).

   HMS Ladybird

Ladybird was a river gunboat launched in 1916, but was pressed into service in WW2 in the Mediterranean. Her ship's cat was Cinders, who probably perished when the ship was sunk off Libya in May 1941.

   HM Landing Craft T166

The unlikely mascot of this vessel was Susan, a black-and-white cat; in fact, there were two mascots, as there was also Bosun, a boisterous mongrel dog. Susan was given to a lieutenant on the craft shortly before sailing one day and, being a former street cat, was found to have fleas. Not wishing to transfer these unwelcome guests to the wardroom, and having no flea powder, the officer bathed Susan in warm disinfectant. She appeared to be none the worse and soon settled down to become a favourite of the crew along with Bosun, with whom she became friends. The animals saw several engagements in the English Channel and were in on the action on D-Day.

Susan became such a dyed-in-the-wool sea cat that when the war ended and she was taken ashore, she didn't like dry land at all; grass, in particular, terrified her. Eventually, though, she did settle down to being a 'landlubber' at her home in Ireland, where she loved playing in the garden with her companions of a Yorkshire terrier, two Siamese cats and her own son — named Bosun, after her friend who had died just before war ended.

   HMS London

The ship had two cats, which are pictured here. The spotted tabby with the 'prize' of a fish was Minnie the Marines' Cat (far left), while the handsome tabby and white was the Chief Baker's Cat. HMS London was involved in the 1949 Yangtze Incident, along with Amethyst, Consort and Black Swan. Read more about the Yangtze Incident in the story of Amethyst's cat Simon.
All images courtesy of Mike Overton, HMS London 1947-49 Association.

   HMS Lord Nelson

A crew member recalled that this 'pre-Dreadnought' battleship — launched in 1906 and flagship of the Channel Fleet when war broke out in 1914 — had two cats on board, a black one and a tabby (names unknown). The strange thing about the black cat was that gunfire never seemed to worry him a bit. He'd walk about on the top of a 12-inch turret when that gun was firing; his fur would stand right up on end, but he'd just look around to see what was happening, and never move. The tabby cat, on the other hand, was terror-stricken by gunfire, and it was a long time before the crew found where he used to hide.

   LSTs (Landing Ships, Tank)

Camouflage, pictured here on 30 March 1945, was the mascot of a US Coast Guard-manned LST operating in the Pacific. His shipmates swore that when the craft was being strafed by Japanese planes with tracer bullets, Camouflage's idea of fun was to chase the bullets from one ship's rail to the other as they pinged across the deck. He never caught one, which is probably just as well as it sounds a highly risky occupation; but his antics kept the crew amused and helped to relieve their tension in difficult times. He is pictured with Coast Guardsman Henry Richmond Jr.

On another LST, Tarawa was named after the atoll in the central Pacific Ocean, previously part of the former British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands, where she was rescued as a frightened and half-starved kitten from a smashed pillbox during the WW2 battle there. She was taken aboard and installed in the officers' quarters, where she looks fairly relaxed about the whole thing. Kodiak, the ship's canine mascot, however, didn't think much of this intruder in his domain, and the two didn't get along, so he stuck with the enlisted men and Tarawa decided she preferred her privileges with the officers. When the vessel returned home for a spell she jumped ship, so Kodiak had his 'empire' to himself again.

Camouflage and Tarawa images: United States Coast Guard.

   HMS Manxman

A WW2 minelaying light cruiser commissioned in 1941, reported once to be the Royal Navy's fastest vessel. Naturally the ship had a Manx cat as mascot, but the holders of the post don't seem to have been very lucky. The first, taken on when the ship was commissioned, was lost at sea during the war. A replacement was taken on when the ship visited the Isle of Man on an official visit, but it too was lost at sea. Further peacetime mascots seem to have fared little better, and the next two did not live out their natural lifespan either.

   USS Merrimack

The third ship to bear the name, the Merrimack was a fleet oiler acquired by the United States Navy at the end of 1941. Commissioned in 1942, she served in both the Atlantic and Pacific during World War II and gained eight battle stars. She had two ship's cats, appropriately named Mary and Mack.
Images: NavSource Naval History.

   HMS Neptune

A World War 1 battleship of 20,000 tons, Neptune had a handsome black mascot called Side-Boy. He featured on one of the 'lucky black cat' postcards, popular at the time, which crew members could send home to their loved ones. Perhaps he did bring luck, as the ship survived the war.

   USS New Mexico

The ship was one of three similar battleships and was launched in May 1918. Extensively modernised in the early 1930s, she served in WW2 in both the Atlantic and the Pacific. Although we don't know its story, Saipan the cat was no doubt named after the Pacific island, one of the places where New Mexico saw action in 1944.
Image: USNI: Cats in the Sea Services.

   HMAS Nizam

Launched in 1940, the destroyer Nizam had two cats in June 1941 when the photo was taken. Named after the Nizam of Hyderabad who helped to pay for her, the ship was owned by Britain's Royal Navy but sailed under the Australian flag during WW2. After hostilities ceased she was returned to Britain but didn't see active service again, and was broken up in 1956.
Image: Australian War Memorial

On board here was intrepid ship's cat Nigger, who insisted on staying on the bridge to keep an eye on things while the ship was involved in the shelling of Salerno, in Italy, in September 1943. But the following month, a letter written by Orion's commander said, 'Unfortunately Nigger is not with us at present. He wished to remain on active service in the Mediterranean, so he was temporarily allowed to transfer to one of His Majesty's battleships in the sphere of operations. We hope, however, to have him back before long.' But the cat did not return, or appear on any other of HM's ships, so maybe he just preferred a Mediterranean lifestyle on land.

   HMAS Perth

The light cruiser Perth served in the Mediterranean during the early years of WW2 and then returned to Australia. Before long she was needed in the Pacific to help combat the Japanese advance across south-east Asia. She left Sydney in January 1942, stopping en route at Fremantle in Western Australia. It seems likely that's where a small kitten joined the crew as mascot, and she may have been given to one of the crew, AB Bob Collins, by the daughter of a shipmate. She was named Red Lead (some accounts give that as one word: Redlead), because soon after arriving on board she knocked over a tin of red-lead paint and needed a serious clean-up afterwards — but not before she'd left some pawprints on the deck! There aren't any existing photos of Red Lead, so we cannot be certain of her colour; some reports have her as tabby and white, others as black.

She quickly became a favourite and, as cats do, found the most comfortable spot to sleep, in Captain Waller's cabin. At the end of February battle was joined with a Japanese convoy attempting to make a landing on the island of Java; Allied ships were seriously outnumbered and in the fierce fighting that followed many were badly damaged, and some were sunk. The noise and chaos of battle, which included aircraft flying close overhead, frightened Red Lead and she spent the entire time in 'her' cabin, until Perth finally withdrew and returned to port.

At that point the kitten seems to have decided she'd had enough of battle and that it would be prudent to seek a quieter and safer home. She crept quietly down the gangplank, but unfortunately for her a sailor saw her and brought her back on deck, ignoring her loud protests. She tried again, and again — three times she tried unsuccessfully to leave. It was a bad omen, and the sailors knew it.

Perth sailed into battle again the following day, 1st March 1942, and met a large fleet of Japanese warships. This time she was not so lucky; she was sunk, with the loss of Captain Waller and 353 other crewmen — and the little kitten called Red Lead.

Note: In 2021, almost 80 years after the above events, a book was published purporting to tell the story — as a 'dramatic narrative' — of the cat's survival of the sinking, her adventures with Australian PoWs in various prison camps and on the notorious Thai–Burma railway. and her final years at home in Thailand after the war. It may make a good story, but it's very hard to believe and reliable sources suggest that, as related above, Red Lead did not survive Perth's sinking. A scathing review of the book at the Australian Naval Institute relates that AB Collins — who himself survived the sinking — did see the kitten in the water after he had abandoned ship, but she was swept away by the fast-flowing currents.

There's a postscript to Red Lead's story; the third ship to bear the name Perth carries on its bridge a silhouette of a cat — with red paws! — as a tribute to the little wartime kitten; and there are pawprints painted on the companionway leading to the bridge, and outside the wardroom. As mentioned above, the cat was quite possibly not black, but a black silhouette would be easier to paint and would stand out better.

   HMS Poppy

A Flower class corvette on Atlantic, Mediterranean and Arctic convoy duties, and her ship's cat was Monty. He's shown here in 1944 when the ship was in the Hebrides, in Scotland, with a large fish that had been killed by a depth charge.

   HMS Prince of Wales

In August of 1941 Winston Churchill, Britain's wartime prime minister, was meeting President Roosevelt of the USA on board this battleship off the coast of Newfoundland in Placentia Bay; they were discussing the Atlantic Charter. The story goes that Churchill noticed the ship's large, black cat Blackie apparently about to cross the gangway to the American destroyer USS McDougal, moored alongside, whereupon he bent down to stroke the cat, the distraction successfully averting a possible desertion. The wider scene can be seen in the middle image — the McDougal ferried the president from his flagship, the USS Augusta.

Churchill was very fond of cats and at the time had his own 'Nelson' at home. Blackie was, of course, renamed Churchill and was a much loved mascot. When Prince of Wales was sunk later that year off Malaya by the Japanese, with great loss of life, Churchill the cat managed to make it ashore with some of the crew to Sime Road Royal Air Force Station in Singapore. He settled in with them, shared their rations and moved camp with them, but in February 1942 orders came to evacuate Singapore within hours in view of the Japanese advance, and Blackie/Churchill, off on one of his hunting trips, could not be found in time. Despite extensive searches, he finally had to be left to his fate.
Top image © Imperial War Museum, London.

   ORP Piorun

A Polish WW2 destroyer based in Great Britain, Piorun ('Thunderbolt' in English) was involved in the action against the Bismarck in 1941. Here in this earlier photo, probably 1940, ship's cats Zaba ('Frog') and Tygrys ('Tiger') are being encouraged to make friends with a stowaway thought to have escaped from an oiler. The name of the third cat is not recorded. Polish sailors make a big fuss of their pets, as it's considered an ill omen if cats voluntarily leave a ship before it sails.
Image © Imperial War Museum, London

   HMS Queen Elizabeth

A 'dreadnought' battleship launched in 1913 and named after Elizabeth I of England. She saw service in both world wars, but was scrapped in 1948. Here she is off the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915 during the Dardanelles campaign, and the ship's cat, name unknown, is seen 'exercising' on one of the 15 inch guns that formed the ship's main armament.
Image: Australian War Memorial.

   USS Ranger

Launched in 1933 and commissioned the following year, Ranger was the first American ship to be purpose-built as an aircraft carrier, and the only one of eight pre-WW2 carriers to survive the war intact, perhaps because she never engaged the Japanese in battle. In 1944 when the photo was taken she was on training duties in the United States, including Hawaii.
Image: USNI: Cats in the Sea Services.

   HMS Renown

Formerly ship's cat of HMS King George V (see entry above), Jimmy was transferred in September 1916 to the newly-commissioned battle cruiser Renown, where he became ship's mascot and was reportedly usually to be found in the galley (well, he had been a cook's cat!). He probably had a rather quieter time than with his previous ship, as Renown saw no combat action during the rest of WW1. Jimmy was later 'decommissioned', and he died in 1924 in a Chelsea cats' home in London.

   SS Rinda

A Norwegian cargo ship that was torpedoed and sunk during World War II off the coast of Sierra Leone. The ship's cat was rescued, along with the surviving crew, by the naval trawler HMT Pict and remained on board as its cat. He was given the name Rinda after his previous ship.

A page on the Rinda at the WarSailors site includes a description of the sinking and its aftermath based on a Norwegian published account. The ship capsized very quickly, taking all but one lifeboat with it, and survivors who had managed to reach it were still looking for anyone left in the water: 'Suddenly, they realized everyone's beloved cat was not among them in the boat, so they proceeded to row around into the night until, to their great joy, they 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".'

   HMS Scorpion

The tomcat mascot of one of the messes on the destroyer Scorpion was called Thomas Oscar and was spoiled rotten. As with many ship's cats, he had his own hammock complete with mattress, blanket and pillow — but he also had a kitbag, an 'HMS' cap ribbon that he wore round his neck on Sundays, and a rabbit-tail toy that he loved to play with. In October 1944 the crew of No. 3 Mess applied for Thomas Oscar to be enrolled in the Allied Forces Mascot Club, with his own pawmark at the foot of the application. This Able-Bodied Cat participated in several Russian convoys, a raid in Norway, and he was at a beachhead offensive on D-Day. He was never seasick, always cheerful and a great companion and source of comfort to the men.

   HM SGB-7

This was a steam gunboat, launched on the river Clyde in Scotland in 1941. One winter's night, when it was snowing and bitterly cold, crew members were unloading boxes of ammunition from railway wagons and carrying them to the boat. Someone heard a strange noise, and called on his mates to stop cursing and grumbling for a moment; there was a faint mewing, and by using a torch the men located a small, cold and pathetic kitten hiding under one of the wagons. 'Poor little b------!' someone said, picking it up and putting it under his jersey.

Back on board on the mess-deck, the freezing cat was gently warmed up by putting it in one of the galley's warm ovens with the door open, and then on top of a bulkhead heater. A bowl of evaporated milk with a dash of rum in it was quickly lapped up, and the little soul became a mess-deck resident and a crew member, although he never had a proper name other than That Bloody Cat or TBC. In his own way he showed quite warlike behaviour: whenever the Action Stations alarm sounded, he would rush towards the bridge, spitting and snarling all the way! And he would always be around when the time came for the rum ration to be issued.

TBC liked to be 'first ashore and last aboard' in port, and used the forward torpedo tubes as his launch pad for disembarking and returning; he would often come flying down the jetty at the last minute, to leap aboard as the vessel started to move off. Unfortunately, after some months on board, he misjudged his departure one day when coming into port, slipped on the rounded surface of the torpedo tube and fell into the sea. Despite prompt action by a sailor (who had been described as 'the worst, dyed-in-the-wool villain') who immediately jumped in after him, TBC could not be found and must have drowned.

   HMS Shark

This undated picture shows Lyddite, the feline mascot of HMS Shark. We presume it refers to the World War I destroyer of that name, which was torpedoed and lost at the battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916. If so, Lyddite probably perished along with most of the ship's crew.

   HMAS Sleuth (formerly Vigilant)

An Australian WW2 auxiliary patrol vessel; she had a black ship's cat called Minnie.

   HMS Shropshire

A London class cruiser launched in Britain in 1928. She gained a number of battle honours in WW2, later being involved in prisoner-of-war repatriation. Her cat Sarah was another feline with her own hammock, including her personal mattress, blanket and pillow. She is said to have been 'spoiled rotten' by the crew.
[Note: One source gives the cat's name as Thomas.]

   HMS Snowflake

This was a Flower class corvette on Atlantic convoy duties, and one of the crew later recalled some memories of ship's cat U-Boat. He didn't know how the cat came on board, but said he was an 'incredible little animal' who taught himself things. Like many other Royal Navy cats, U-Boat had his own little hammock and lifejacket, and he was listed on the ship's complement. When 'action stations' was called, the cat would make a beeline for the flour bin in the galley and would stay up on top of it until the action was over.

At the end of a voyage, U-Boat went ashore as soon as the ship had tied up in harbour, but somehow he knew when it was due to sail again and reappeared shortly beforehand. On one memorable occasion he hadn't returned by sailing time, and half the crew were talking of jumping ship, as it was considered extremely unlucky to sail without the mascot; but then, just as Snowflake was casting off, a little grey shape came hurtling down the jetty, made a flying leap across the widening gap of several feet between ship and shore, just made it onto the deck and then calmly sat down to wash himself.

On another occasion, after U-Boat had been on board about a year, someone decided he should have a birthday, and on such an occasion it was customary to provide some rum. The cat was given some, mixed with evaporated milk, in a saucer and lapped it all up. It made him quite drunk, and he ended up with a terrible hangover! He eventually slept it off, and would never touch rum again.

U-Boat left the ship in rather strange circumstances. Normally a very clean cat, he always 'did his business' on the upper deck, where it would be cleaned up by the crew, but one day, for some unknown reason, he made a mess on the captain's wardroom chair. The captain put him on report and, to cut the tale short, the upshot was that the captain decided U-Boat was to be put ashore when the ship reached Newfoundland and was not to be allowed back on board.

The crew felt this judgement was 'over the top' and were not at all happy about it. But the extraordinary thing was that the cat seemed to make his own decision. When Snowflake tied up at St John's he went ashore, as was his custom — and didn't return. The crew never saw him again.

   HMAS Sydney

HMAS Sydney was a light cruiser and at the time of this photo was serving in the Mediterranean, where she gained an impressive record. Here, AB J.T. Walker of the Royal Australian Navy is pictured with his puppy 'Shrapnel' in July 1940, while AB Gamble holds his kitten Salvo. In November 1941, in a mutually destructive engagement with a German raider off the western coast of Australia, the ship was lost with all hands.
Image: Australian War Memorial

   HM Tank Landing Craft No. 5

This vessel was involved in the abortive British raid on Dieppe, France, in 1942. Sooty RN, Ship's Cat First Class, was a small black-and-white female attached as mascot to the vessel and was just ten weeks old at the time. The craft was hit by enemy fire while retreating, caught fire and was sinking when Sooty managed to swim clear. She clung on to a surviving crewman's steel helmet until both were rescued by a flakship. She was the only animal to accompany the force involved in that ill-fated operation, and was said to have behaved throughout in a seacat-like manner, taking little notice of all the noise and confusion. Our photo was contributed by Mrs Jeanine Hardcastle, to whom thanks; the quality is poor as it is from an old newspaper cutting, but it shows Sooty wearing a 'miniature VC' fashioned for her by her shipmates.

   HMS Vernon and cats' collars

Ship's cats were actively encouraged during WW2 by the Royal Navy, although not usually officially listed as part of the crew. However, cats being cats, of course they tended to change ships quite often, so to try to bring some order into the chaos it had some time earlier been decreed by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty that 'all cats in naval establishments must wear collars at all times'. The collars were to have the ship's name embroidered on them, so it would be known where a cat belonged. Ominously, it was also stated that cats wearing no collar were to be 'summarily dealt with'. The cat at the shore base, HMS Vernon, was duly supplied with his smart collar, as pictured. However, no one seems to have considered who was going to pay for the thousands of collars that would be needed! As neither the Treasury nor the Admiralty was willing to find the funds, the order was quietly forgotten.

   HMS Victorious

This WW2 aircraft carrier had Tiddles who had spent his whole life on aircraft carriers, having been born at sea on another one, HMS Argus. Tiddles is seen at his favourite station on the aft capstan, where he enjoyed playing with the bell rope. At the time of this photo dating from July 1942 he was serving as the captain's cat, and it was estimated that he had travelled about 30,000 miles on the high seas.
Image © Imperial War Museum, London.

   HMS Vindex

Pincher was the WW1 mascot of HMS Vindex, one of Britain's first aircraft carriers. He's seen here sitting on the propeller of one of the seaplanes the ship carried, which is the reason for his entry being duplicated in the Air section of our first Cats in Wartime page.
Image © Imperial War Museum, London

   USS Vixen

Miss Vixen was mascot aboard the USS Vixen, a former pleasure yacht bought by the US Navy in 1940 and converted to a gunboat. It was commissioned in 1941 and served in the Caribbean keeping an eye on German U-boat activity. It was decommissioned in 1946.
Thanks to Michael W Pocock of Maritime Quest for sending the photo, originally from the Library of Congress.

   HMT Vizalma

This was a Royal Navy antisubmarine trawler, built in 1940 and commissioned in 1941. She apparently had two mascots on board: Whitey the cat and Whisky the dog. In our photo Whitey is held by Cox Astles and Whisky is with sailor J. Butcher. The photos came from an album that belonged originally to a Lt Peter Taylor, from Australia, and were kindly sent to us by Kathryn Shapland of Western Australia.

Also in the album was a photo of the ship.

   USS Walton

A destroyer escort ship that saw service in the latter stages of WW2, but later served in the Korean War in the early 1950s. We think this sad story dates from then. Apparently at some point the captain decided to bring aboard a ship's cat, although the crew didn't particularly want one; it was named Otis. The radio operators — a group of sailors the captain had taken a dislike to — were tasked with attending to Otis's litter box, a job they did not welcome. At one time someone covered the poor cat in diesel oil; it was suspected that it was one of the radio men 'getting back' at the captain. One day while the ship was in the South China Sea Otis disappeared; again it was suspected the radio operators had a hand in his vanishing. However, much later on one of the men reported that he had seen the captain himself throwing the unfortunate animal overboard.
Image: USS Walton site, apparently no longer online — the Internet Archive has a copy of the page minus the image.

   HMS Warspite

Around 1939, Stripey, tabby and white, was born on board the battleship, which had already seen service in World War One. Over an eventful 30-year period of service, Warspite had the distinction of earning the most battle honours ever awarded to an individual ship in the Royal Navy, and the most for actions during the Second World War. At 05:00 on D-Day at the start of the Normandy offensive in June 1944, she was the first ship to open fire in the naval bombardment of German defensive positions, in support of Allied landings.

Stripey remained with Warspite beyond her decommissioning in early 1945, until 1947 when the ship was due to be broken up, but for the last year or so she was alone on board with George Watson, the watchman. They became very attached to one another, and George was determined the cat would not be abandoned. When their watch duties ended, he was transferred to HMS Malaya, and the pair continued to sail together.

   HMS Western Isles

Western Isles was an old Scottish inter-island ship that was based at Tobermory on the island of Mull. During WW2 Vice-Admiral Sir Gilbert Stephenson, KBE, CB, CMG (known as 'the Terror of Tobermory' because of his ruthless efficiency) used it as his headquarters when he was running a Royal Navy battle school for U-boat hunters. Ship's cat Peebles was said to be very clever, and would 'shake hands' with strangers when they entered the wardroom. Here he is 'jumping through the hoop' formed by the arms of Lt Cdr R.B. Palmer, OBE, in 1944.
Image © Imperial War Museum, London

   After their merchant ship was sunk in the North Atlantic in March 1943, ship's cat Maizie and six crew members spent 56 hours on a life raft before they were rescued. Crewman Eugene Clancy of New York said, 'If Maizie hadn't been with us, we might have gone nuts. We completely forgot our personal discomfort and almost fought for the privilege of petting her.' Maizie took her turn at eating malted milk tablets and condensed food with the men, and even comforted those suffering from exposure or seasickness by going from one to another 'almost like a mother'. It was reported that the cat had spent only about ten days on shore since America entered the war in December 1941.

   Pooli served as a youngster aboard a United States attack transport during the latter part of World War II. This picture was taken on Independence Day in 1959, her fifteenth birthday, when Pooli, a veteran who rated three service ribbons and four battle stars, showed she could still get into her old uniform.
Image: Wikimedia Commons

   Toughy, Huffy and Snuffy were mascots on board a British tanker vessel, and this delightful photo was taken when it was berthed at a shipyard in Brooklyn, New York, in 1944. They are investigating an old-fashioned diver's helmet.

Our featured feline at the head of the page is Socks, pictured in 2003 surveying his 'estate' in the early morning sunshine. Affectionately known as Soxy, he blossomed from a thin and hungry stray into a substantial and handsome cat who loved life and company, and his gentle ways endeared him to many friends. He is no longer with us, but you can read more from his human companion here.