Cats

[The Chapman]

What all is known about ship's cats at the time? Yes/No? Accommodations?

Usual number of cats, if present? Was their presence customary? Tolerated as a form of necessity, or what? I've seen indications by authors asserting that some ships were more or less floating menageries and barnyards, in which cat(s) would have been merely part of a greater animal population, but I'm not sure if I buy that, at least as regular practice.

I have some information, which I'll post later, but right now I gotta go to work.

Ideas or documentation, anybody?

[Patrick Hand]

We had a thread about this.... Pyrate Kittys....

https://pyracy.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=7580

[Fox]

In case you can't be bothered to trawl through it all, a quick recap:

Defoe mentions ship's cats (and dogs) a couple of times in Robinson Crusoe.

This painting of 1731 clearly show's a ship's cat:

And Alexander Selkirk had loads of pet cats on Juan Fernandez which had got there via passing ships (and then bred too, obviously). I didn't give a quotation in the other thread so here it is:

"He was at first much pester'd by Cats and Rats, that had bred in great numbers from some of each Species which had got ashore from ships that put in there to wood and water. The rats gnaw'd his feet and cloathes while asleep, which oblig'd him to cherish the cats with his Goats-flesh; by which many of them became so tame, that they would lie about him in hundreds, and soon delivered him from the rats."

A Cruising Voyage Around the World, Woodes Rogers, 1712.

FWIW, Rogers also mentions that they had a bulldog aboard the Duke

[The Chapman]

I read through the old thread, thanks very much, Patrick and Foxe. That's the problem with forums: once they've been up a while, they try the patience of long time users by repeating the same questions and discussions over and over again.

Howsomever, I'm still kind of interested in the relationship of possibly present animals to the crew of ships. Pets? Workers? Combination of the two? Just sort of... there, because that's what people did? I didn't really

think too much about dogs, but it's obvious after reading the old thread that dogs were considered just as efficient at ratting as cats, and in the case of the terriers every bit as efficient.

Since I don't give up on things, I'll keep poking around, but for the meantime, here's this:

"Newfoundland was discovered by John Cabot in 1497," Jeff Griffen reminds us in The Hunting Dogs of America (NY: Doubleday, 1964), "and St. John's, because of its splendid horseshoe harbour that could accommodate the largest of ships, was settled as a British colony in 1583. Within seventy-five years (to 1658), fishermen from France, Spain and Portugal were regular visitors....

In time...the St. John's Newfoundland [arose], a ... water dog about the size of a Pointer with a heavy, oily coat that shed water like a greased balloon .... a most practical dog. During the fall and spring when great masses of migrating ducks and geese clogged the island, he worked tirelessly with gunners as a retriever.

By and large, though, he was a fisherman's dog, working around the nets, on the boats, recovering anything that fell overboard, fetching a cod that slid back into the water as the fish were being transferred to the pier, swimming from ship to shore with a hawser line.

In those days a ship dog was a handy asset, not only for companionship but for practical use. From 1750 on, these Newfoundlands from St. John's rode the ships to England and the Continent. They were a captain's pride and joy, friend of the crew and general handyman." (Griffen, p. 119.)

[The Chapman]

I had not considered FERRETS as rat control on ships. Evidently they were used for that purpose for quite some time. That would be considered a working animal.

[The Chapman]

THE HOI AN HOARD

After being discovered by fisherman this became the only shipwreck to come on the market having been carried out as an archaeological excavation. The Vietnamese Government protected the site and Mensum Bound became site excavation Director, and with his team at Mare, the maritime archaeological branch of Oxford University the ceramics and other artefacts were recorded and recovered.

The boat was probably Thai as it was of teak construction and betel-chewing equipment was found. It was large, about 30 meters in length possibly carrying 25.000 ceramics items. It sank in the Dragon Sea not far from Vietnamese town of Hoi An.

As well as this immense cargo many items from everyday use were found, food for the crew, cooking pots, and even some of the passengers and the crew themselves, 20 rat sculls and ONE CAT SKULL were also recovered.

Tentatively dated c. mid-1400s.