The Ships Cat

There is an old wives tail of ancient unknown origin that says that a cat aboard the ship keeps it safe from misfortune. It is so common a belief that most ships do in fact have at least one or more cats aboard. While most captains understand that ships go down with or without the cat, they do tend to keep one on board to placate the more superstitious sailors, but also as a personal pet to help them relax. The captain takes it on himself to select a cat that he likes for the ship, which are available in various qualities at every port. Some captains pick friendlier cats for petting, and some will select alley cats and scarcely feed them depending on the captains personality of course. Rarely a captain will find that they get ill around the cat. Such an arrangement is actually prized by the crew. To them this means that the captain is removing the misfortune of the cat and sneezing it out into the sea again. Its entirely possible that the officers of a ship make sure this is the point of view shared by a superstitious crew.

If a ship loses a cat through natural death or some other means the sailors tend to get a little superstitious and at the next port the captain will take some time to do a ceremony known as "freeing the spirit of the cat." This involves an extra ration of spirits and some extra shore leave or games aboard ship if shore leave isn't possible. This is usually organized and overseen by the Coxswain by tradition. The captain of course uses the time to secure a new cat.

This superstition has some truth to it as the cats actively hunt rats and other pests on board, which cuts down on disease. In addition they provide some entertainment for the crew as well.

The captain kept a whole family of cats. I swear he was a hard nosed son of a sea whore but the affection he showed those cats meant he had a soul in there ... somewhere.... deep deep down.
~Anonymous sailor