Ships' cats

The ship's cat has been a common feature on many trading, exploration, and naval ships dating to ancient times. Cats have been carried on ships for many reasons, most importantly to catch mice and rats. These vermin aboard a ship can cause damage to ropes, woodwork, and more recently, electrical wiring. Also, rodents threaten ships' stores, devour crews' foodstuff, and could cause economic damage to ships' cargo such as grain. They are also a source of disease, which is dangerous for ships that are at sea for long periods of time. Rat fleas are carriers of plague, and rats on ships were believed to be a main spreader of the Black Death.

Cats naturally attack and kill rodents, and their natural ability to adapt to new surroundings made them suitable for service on a ship. In addition, they offer companionship and a sense of home, security and camaraderie to sailors away from home.

The domestication of cats is believed to date back to around 9,000 years ago on farms in the Near East. The Ancient Egyptians took cats on board Nile boats to catch birds in the thickets along the riverbanks. A 2017 study suggests that cats spread from ancient Egypt along maritime trade routes a few thousand years after first being domesticated. Preliminary results of a genetic study published in September 2016 concluded that cats were also carried on trading ships to control rodents, and that practice was adopted by traders from other nations, including Vikings in northern Germany around the 8th to 11th centuries. The Norwegian Forest cat is a natural breed believed to have been developed from Viking ships' cats. Sailing ships spread the domestic cat throughout much of the rest of the world during the Age of Discovery in the 15th through 18th centuries.

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Wikipedia