In 1940 this corvette was on duty in the north Atlantic, with the crew on constant alert for submarines. 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. Image: USNI: Cats in the Sea Services. 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'. All images courtesy of Mike Overton, HMS London 1947-49 Association. 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. ORP Burza document.write("?subject=Cats in Wartime - Sea\">"); Bismarck HMS Argonaut Ship's cat Minnie of the cruiser Argonaut was one of the most travelled of naval cats. The photograph shows members of the Australian Army 15th Battalion leaving Australia for England on the ship on 20 December 1916. hide. It also has a small remand function, taking prisons from three part-time courts (Llandrindod Wells, De Maldwyn and Welshpool). Subsequently thousands of eager listeners wrote in to enquire about her. The ships in the list below are listed alphabetically within each type. See more ideas about Royal navy ships, Royal navy, Warship. 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 was never seasick, always cheerful and a great companion and source of comfort to the men. A minesweeper in the early years of WW2, with two ship's cats, Ginger and Minnie. 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. 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. A signal was sent to the Commander of the naval base to request her return to the UK if found but she never was. 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. (Hammock for reading nautical fiction) Bob Saldeen. This was a Norwegian cargo ship during WW2 and had a ship's cat known simply as Puss. The development of the anti-aircraft cruiser began in 1935 when the Royal Navy re-armed HMS Coventry and HMS Curlew. If you'd like to comment please contact me, Fabled Felines Camouflage and Tarawa images: United States Coast Guard. Folios | Log in or sign up to leave a comment Log In Sign Up. share. no comments yet. The Hjalmar Wessel was diverted instead to Barletta. Minnie was a tabby, with immaculate white paws and breast. 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. We completely forgot our personal discomfort and almost fought for the privilege of petting her.' 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. This was a steam rescue tug with two mascots: tomcat Tommy and black female Lucky. It made him quite drunk, and he ended up with a terrible hangover! 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 badly outnumbered and in the fierce fighting that followed many were badly damaged, and some were sunk. presumably she had hitched a ride on another ship. Thanks to Jim Winchell for originally sending an image of Scouse. 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. 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. Image: Australian War Memorial. 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. This unpleasant-looking character is called the Squander Bug, and it was created during the Second World War by artist Phillip Boydell, an employee of the National Savings Committee. HMS Shropshire was a Royal Navy (RN) heavy cruiser of the London sub-class of County class cruisers. 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. That would explain the fox's head trophy, which was presented to the ship by the hunt and was hung in the wardroom. Caterpillar established its first major facility outside the United States more than 60 years ago in the UK. 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. It's not interesting. Images: NavSource Naval History. 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. ! Blackie was, of course, renamed Churchill and was a much loved mascot. Image © Imperial War Museum, London. Letters MUST include the writer’s name, address and telephone number. He probably had a rather quieter time than with his previous ship, as Renown saw no combat action during the rest of WW1. for more real-life stories and adventures of cats, Other sections: See map. 207 Squadron will again reform to become the Operational Conversion Unit for the UK F-35B Lightning Force and will return to RAF Marham in Norfolk where it was last based in 1965. 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. 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. A vet was called and treatment given, but he died soon afterwards, in mid-March 1940. (The dog later went missing when the Julia berthed in England, but was found in Portsmouth.) 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. Palmerston, a rescue cat from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, was brought to the Foreign Office in 2016, prompting reports of a rivalry with Downing Street cat Larry. He tried again, and again three times he tried unsuccessfully to leave. 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. Feline Fragments HMP & YOI Stoke Heath is a Closed Category C Adult male and Young Adult site, with a small Cat D unit which opened in November 2012. He eventually slept it off, and would never touch rum again. best. Sort by. [ for wartime cats on land and in the air, see this separate page ]. Image © and reproduced by kind permission of the Imperial War Museum, London. Here he is 'jumping through the hoop' formed by the arms of Lt Cdr R.B. Around 1939, Stripey, tabby and white, was born on board the battleship, which had already seen service in World War One. Barham went on to see service in the Second World War but was was sunk by a U-boat in 1941. Attempts to rescue the ship failed, and she was abandoned and sank two days later.
