Although she was best-known for her wonderful Dragonriders novels, Anne McCaffrey’s talents roamed far beyond the skies of Pern. Like a lot of writers, she was fond of cats, and in none of her books is her ailurophilia more pronounced than in her Barque Cats novels: Catalyst and Catacombs. These charming novels describe a space-going society where sentient cats serve as full-fledged crew members on space ships, and are psychically bonded to human beings known as Cat People. The Barque Cats are a cat-fancier’s dream. Being taken into a cat’s confidence already seems special enough; imagine being able to actually communicate with your feline friend on a psychic level!
While psychic communication with our pets may be a thing of the far future, the Barque Cats have their precedent in the distant past. Cats have been accompanying human sailors on ships large and small for many years. Their skills as mousers made cats welcome companions on ships hauling grain, and it is thought that cats were spread throughout the world by traveling sailors.
Beyond their practical value as efficient means of rodent control, cats also provided companionship for crew members traveling far from home and were often considered mascots. Black cats were thought to be especially lucky, and had the power to bring sailors safely home. Ship’s cats were also considered to be good luck against bad weather. This isn’t too far fetched, though: Any cat owner can testify that their pets will often act nervous before a storm.
While we might think of the ship’s cat as a tradition from a bygone era, seafaring felines found their way into the modern age, serving with distinction during times of war and peace alike. One cat, a mixed breed named Simon who served on the HMS Amethyst during the Yangtse incident, earned the Dickin medal for his contributions. While neither the navies of the United States nor United Kingdom currently allow cats on board their vessels, many civilian ships count cats among their crews.
Ship’s cats haven’t only found sci-fi fame with Anne McCaffrey: Ridley Scott’s 1979 film ALIEN featured an orange tabby named “Jones”, who, along with Ripley, was the only survivor to escape the horrific xenomorph. Star Trek: The Next Generation had its own ship’s cat named a”Spot”.
Want more cats? Read Anne McCaffrey’s Catacombs: A Tale of the Barque Cats, available today!
