Nelson & His World

I read somewhere that AOS ships were required by law to carry cats to control the rats, and that the number depended on the size of the vessel-for example, a first rate carried more than a frigate.Does anyone know about this, and did dogs go to sea as pets? ( I know Collingwood took Bounce to sea)-tay

I have never heard of any laws requiring ships to have cats, although most ships of the day would have had a small menagerie onboard, especially if undertaking a lengthy voyage - goats to provide fresh milk (for the wardroom); chickens / ducks (=eggs), plus a small number of pigs and cows (the numbers of which would decrease as they were slaughtered for fresh meat).

It was, I believe, not unusual for seamen to adopt animals as pets, which ranged from cats, through parrots to monkeys.

Dogs are occasionally mentioned, mainly by officers - Collingwood is the best known. Matthew Flinders kept a pet cat (Trim), which accompanied him.

I have never heard of a rule either - in any case can you imagine a ship with TWO cats!!

Kester

This land-locked ship I inhabit has happily carried two cats - plus the visting moggies on their raiding parties - all of whom get fed and watered.

Cats are very adaptable and will settle down to make the most of whatever situation they find themselves in.

My last two (litter brothers but as different as chalk and cheese) would hunt together in the tiny garden we have. It was like watching their big brothers in the wild: laying the game plan and then stalking in a pincer movement. They even trapped a strange moggie in the house for three days - keeping watch on it - before I discovered it by chance.

And how did I know it was three days? Well - that's another story!

Bizarre beasts. But love 'em.

I love cats too - am an unpaid maid to two rather grand furry ladies.

Ships' cats: didn't the Royal Navy have to get rid of all ships' cats some years ago because of a rabies scare? At the time, there were lots of reminiscences about ships' cats including one that would go ashore at whatever port the ship was in, and would reappear exactly 10 minutes before they were due to sail.

Surely somebody has written a book on ships' cats. There's one on Cathedral cats and one on railway cats. Tay - something for you to do, if it hasn't been done?

Ships' dogs - that's another story. When I visited Simonstown in South Africa I saw the statue there to Nuisance, a Great Dane, much beloved of the sailors there. He used to round up the drunken ones and steer them back to their ship.

Abbie, I'm fascinated to know more about the 3 day siege in your living room (or wherever it took place!)

Our old girl once spent a week on a building site, trapped in a house being renovated when the builders left, and freed when they returned a week later at our behest.

The whole neighbourhood had been out in force looking for her, when plaintive cries were heard from the derelict building.

She dashed out, covered in muck and dust, at a million miles an hour when we got to her.

Unfortunately we lost her last September at 17, the last of three, but we're now looking for another tortoiseshell companion to join our tortoiseshell dog.

We hear much of animals aboard ship for practical purposes, but they must have also provided companionship, and perhaps a link to home, on many a long voyage.

The three day hostage story .......

Early one Saturday morning just as the sun was rising ... no - this isn't the start of a musical interlude... my husband and I decided it was time to leave the garden where we had been comfortablay ensconced since the previous evening having had a friends round for barbeque and copious quantities of liquid refreshment.

Neither of us took much notice of anything as we simply locked the back door and went upstairs for a few hours of comatose sleep.

When we rose later in the day we found the curtain netting of the back door looking rather shredded and the curtain rail somewhat bent. Assuming our two mogs had had an out of character set to we thought no more of it.

Now, bearing in mind it was a very hot summer it didn't seem unusual that either one or the other of our two moggies took turns laying in the cooler upstairs hall, just outside the back bedroom door. We did joke, at the time, that it seemed they were taking turns like a pair of watch-cats.

This carried on over the weekend and into Monday, even during the night which in itself was unusual.

On Monday evening I wanted to look for some paperwork which I was sure I'd put upstairs. Whilst in the back bedroom I thought "My breathing does sound bad - it must be the weather." But it didn't *feel* like it was me making the gasping rasping noise - and sure enough it carried on even when I held my breath to listen.

I traced the sound to a low table underneath which was a sewing machine in its case. On top of the case was the most bedraggled and pathetic looking cat I'd ever seen. Suddenly - the shredded net curtain from early Saturday morning and the watch-keeping routine became quite clear. The little hairy horrors had trapped said pathetic moggy and were keeping it there but what their eventual intention was is anyone's guess.

It took two of us to wrestle the poor creature into a cat carrier to bring it downstairs. We thought it best have some water after having been trapped for so long with no food and drink and not even having had a .... well .... poo. So - I put down a bowl of fresh water and opened the carrier. Pathetic moggy wasn't having any of it - oh no Siree! It made straight for the back door and simply burst through the locked cat-flap and out into the evening - never to be seen again.

Our two looked rather sheepish as we admonished them - but I do believe they had that 'Aren't we clever' look about them, plus a certain spring in their steps and a jaunty swish to their tails.

Sadly, neither of our boys are still with us. The dipsy one went out to play with the cars and lost the game. Some years later the big lad, whilst travelling back from Wales in the car, let out a strange but soft Uggghhhh and ceased to be. After burying the big lad in his favourite garden spot we had to travel to London for the evening (final of Great Britons - we were supporting Nelson, of course) but did so with heavy hearts and red eyes. "No more" we vowed "no more mogs."

Yeah - no more. Sure. Our current furry-faced beastie is a girlie who had two families before coming to us. She'd never been allowed to sleep indoors and was usually fed outside. It didn't take her long to get the hang of bed and board and now rules the roost with a paw of iron.

As the saying goes - Dogs have owners - Cats have staff.

Here's a pic of the big lad whose battery ran out on the way home from Wales.(He's the one being carried, by the way.)

What handsome fellows above!

Read the story of Simon, the ship's cat aboard HMS Amethyst during the 'Yangtze Incident', who was awarded the Dickin Medal, the animal VC. and also a campaign medal. His citation reads amongst other things, that 'he did stalk and kill a rat named Mao-Tse-Tung who was a threat to the ship's stores'. It's a bit out of our period but never mind!

See www.purr-n-fur.org.uk, which also features more on ships' cats at http://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/featuring/war02.html and www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/featuring/war04.html for pictures of Simon's grave.

There is also a poem about Simon and Lord Nelson - two heroes on the quarterdeck beyond the Pearly Gates.