magazine story / full-time ship's cats
 

Hi, I'm a writer doing a magazine story about ship's cats.

It's funny -- I know there are a lot of ship's cats out there, but I'm
having real trouble finding people who both keep a ship's cat and are
available to be interviewed.

If you have a cat that lives full-time aboard your vessel, I would like
to converse with you about it, probably via email, unless you happen to
be relatively close to Portland, Oregon, USA, which is where I am.

Deepest regards,

Martin Brown


ps. Naturally, I'm on a deadline.
pps. more about me: http://martinjohnbrown.net

No but I knew a guy who had two giant sloths who hung from his boat's
spreaders and fed on insects and birds they could catch.



"Martin" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi, I'm a writer doing a magazine story about ship's cats.

It's funny -- I know there are a lot of ship's cats out there, but I'm
having real trouble finding people who both keep a ship's cat and are
available to be interviewed.

If you have a cat that lives full-time aboard your vessel, I would like
to converse with you about it, probably via email, unless you happen to
be relatively close to Portland, Oregon, USA, which is where I am.

Deepest regards,

Martin Brown


ps. Naturally, I'm on a deadline.
pps. more about me: http://martinjohnbrown.net

Martin,
Here's a full-time aboard cat with her own web page

http://liveaboardsvpapillon.homestea...spage~ns4.html

Hi Martin

We are currently cruising in Australia, and here kearned a fascinating
story about one of the early Pacific explorers.

Mathew Flinders was a British naval officer in the late 1700's who
discovered and named Bass Strait between Australia and Tasmania,
circumnavigated Tasmania proving it an island and circumnaviagted and
charted much of the Australian coastline. He actually named the continent
of Australia - before that it was known as New Holland. As he was
returning to England, England went to war with France and Flinders was
imprisoned in the French colony of Mauritius for 15 years.

Anyhow, during his explorations he had a pet cat called "Trim" and he went
on to write a biography of that cat - literally that cat's life story.
And perhaps the only biography of an eighteenth century ship's cat.
Flinders also published his own journal of his explorations. Read
together, they provide a fascinating story.

Both have been recently republished, but I have on-mailed my copies so I
cannot give publishers details. I bought both books at the excellent
bookshop at the Martime Museum of Tasmania in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Cost was about Aus$100 and Aus$30 respectively, or well under US$100
total. The museum's address is .

Fair winds

Graeme






Martin wrote:

Hi, I'm a writer doing a magazine story about ship's cats.

It's funny -- I know there are a lot of ship's cats out there, but I'm
having real trouble finding people who both keep a ship's cat and are
available to be interviewed.

If you have a cat that lives full-time aboard your vessel, I would like
to converse with you about it, probably via email, unless you happen to
be relatively close to Portland, Oregon, USA, which is where I am.

Deepest regards,

Martin Brown


ps. Naturally, I'm on a deadline.
pps. more about me: http://martinjohnbrown.net

Hi, thanks for the tips and the stories. They help.

Graeme mentioned Matthew Flinders' cat Trim, who is probably one of the
most famous ship's cats. There's a whole website with a collection of
Flinders papers, including his longish tribute to Trim -- that's at
http://www.nmm.ac.uk/flinders/Displa...tXML Page=All

There are a ton of passing references in historical documents to cats
(and dogs) living on ships, who (from the context) seem to have been
kept partly as pets and partly as pest control. One of the neat things
that Flinders' account suggests is that (because Trim was born aboard
ship, and sailing voyages could be very long) there were probably whole
generations of cats that rarely if ever experienced land.

But I'm wondering about ship's cats now. I am getting the impression
that the practice has become less common than it used to be. "Our
ships have no cats on them!" growled the media rep for a major shipping
line when I called to inquire. The Royal Navy apparently does not
allow animals on board now (though this is something I need to confirm
still).

The people who keep ship's cats seem to be people who live aboard their
sloops and other small craft (small compared to Navy ships anyway).
That's who I'm beating the local marinas trying to find. I still need
leads if you've got them.
Happy holidays,

Martin
http://martinjohnbrown.net

Please relay who has republished this book as the least expensive copy
of the original I can find is about $500 ! :-)

Thank you,
Courtney



Graeme Cook wrote:

Hi Martin

We are currently cruising in Australia, and here kearned a fascinating
story about one of the early Pacific explorers.

Mathew Flinders was a British naval officer in the late 1700's who
discovered and named Bass Strait between Australia and Tasmania,
circumnavigated Tasmania proving it an island and circumnaviagted and
charted much of the Australian coastline. He actually named the continent
of Australia - before that it was known as New Holland. As he was
returning to England, England went to war with France and Flinders was
imprisoned in the French colony of Mauritius for 15 years.

Anyhow, during his explorations he had a pet cat called "Trim" and he went
on to write a biography of that cat - literally that cat's life story.
And perhaps the only biography of an eighteenth century ship's cat.
Flinders also published his own journal of his explorations. Read
together, they provide a fascinating story.

Both have been recently republished, but I have on-mailed my copies so I
cannot give publishers details. I bought both books at the excellent
bookshop at the Martime Museum of Tasmania in Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
Cost was about Aus$100 and Aus$30 respectively, or well under US$100
total. The museum's address is .

Fair winds

Graeme






Martin wrote:


Hi, I'm a writer doing a magazine story about ship's cats.

It's funny -- I know there are a lot of ship's cats out there, but I'm
having real trouble finding people who both keep a ship's cat and are
available to be interviewed.

If you have a cat that lives full-time aboard your vessel, I would like
to converse with you about it, probably via email, unless you happen to
be relatively close to Portland, Oregon, USA, which is where I am.

Deepest regards,

Martin Brown


ps. Naturally, I'm on a deadline.
pps. more about me: http://martinjohnbrown.net




--
s/v Mutiny
Rhodes Bounty II
lying Oriental, NC
WDB5619

Hi Courtney

Courtney Thomas wrote:
Please relay who has republished this book as the least expensive
copy
of the original I can find is about $500 ! :-)

Thank you,
Courtney


I'm not sure if this is the book you were referring to, but it's about
Trim, and it's 5 pounds:

http://www.nauticalia.com/uk-info/mo...ders/4691.html

That same web site has another book called "Ships Cats in War and
Peace" which I have not yet seen (according to WorldCat, there are only
about 5 library copies in the USA).

Cheers, Martin