Ship's Cats: Unsinkable Sam, Simon of the Amethyst, and Weather Omens

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A black and white cat later nicknamed Unsinkable Sam survived the sinking of the Bismarck in May 1941, then the torpedoing of HMS Cossack, then the loss of HMS Ark Royal, before retiring to mouse catching in a Gibraltar office with six lives to go. Ship's cats earned their berth by killing rats that chewed rope, hulls and grain and carried plague fleas. Domesticated about 10,000 years ago in the Fertile Crescent, cats spread along Mediterranean trade routes by the 8th century BCE and reached Viking ports by the 7th century CE. Sailors prized extra toed polydactyl cats and read weather in a cat's sneezes and grooming, which may reflect a real sensitivity to falling barometric pressure.

In the Second World War cats became crew. Blackie of HMS Prince of Wales was photographed with Churchill in August 1941 and renamed Churchill. Convoy of HMS Hermione had his own hammock and died with 87 men when she was torpedoed. Simon of HMS Amethyst was wounded by shrapnel in the 1949 Yangtze incident, kept hunting rats, was named Able Seacat and remains the only cat awarded the Dickin Medal. In May 1914 Emmy abandoned the Empress of Ireland and her kittens in Quebec City, hours before the liner sank with over 1,000 lives.

Kiddo stowed away on the airship America in 1910 and was hung in a gunny sack under the gondola.
Mrs. Chippy, a male cat on Shackleton's Endurance, was shot after the ship was crushed in the ice.
The US Navy cat Pooley earned three service ribbons and four battle stars.
The Royal Navy banned pets from ships in 1975 on hygiene grounds.
Science fiction carried the tradition on, from Jonesy in Alien to Data's cat Spot.

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