For over a century, cats served as working members of the United States Navy and Coast Guard. Their main job was hunting rats and mice that hid in the dark corners of wooden and steel vessels. Rodents were a serious threat at sea — they chewed through ropes, woodwork, and eventually electrical wiring after steam power arrived. A single gnawed wire could knock out engine controls or communications during a mission.
Cats also protected the food supply. Ships stored large quantities of grain, flour, and dried meat in their holds. Rodents destroyed these stocks quickly — eating the food or contaminating it with waste. Far from port, a lost food supply meant hunger or disease for the entire crew. Cats patrolled cargo holds and storage rooms day and night to keep supplies safe.
Beyond food and equipment, cats were a defense against deadly disease. Rats and mice carried illnesses that spread fast among sailors packed into tight quarters. A single outbreak could force a ship to abandon its mission and return to port. By keeping rodent numbers low, cats directly reduced the risk of infection spreading through the crew.
Sailors did not see these animals as mere pest control. Cats became official mascots, boosting morale during long, isolating voyages. Many ships outfitted their cats with small hammocks and life jackets. Crews shared their own food with them and gave them names, ranks, and identities tied to the ship itself.
By the 1920s, ship’s cats were a fully established part of naval life. They appeared in official photographs, climbed rigging, and became fixtures in port cities around the world. Their presence was so accepted that they were photographed with the same pride as the ships themselves.
World War Two brought ship’s cats into active combat zones. Pilots on aircraft carriers relaxed with their ship’s mascot between missions, finding a brief moment of calm before returning to the fight.
Some cats were picked up directly from battle. The USS New Mexico found its mascot, ‘Saipan,’ during the Marine invasion of the island in 1944. On Tarawa’s Betio Island in November 1943, a kitten crawled out from under a destroyed Japanese tank and was given water by a U.S. Marine — one of the war’s most striking images of life persisting through destruction.
Back home, the Coast Guard Academy had its own mascot. ‘Bilgewater’ was photographed around 1944 wearing the new wartime grey cadet uniform — treated with the same formality as any servicemember.
One of the most decorated ship’s cats was ‘Pooli,’ a female cat who served aboard an attack transport during World War II. She earned three service ribbons and four battle stars. In 1959, at 15 years old, she was photographed in Los Angeles fitting back into her old uniform — a record few veterans, human or otherwise, could match.
Even the Korean War produced its own feline story. Marine Sergeant Frank Praytor adopted a two-week-old kitten named ‘Miss Hap’ after her mother was killed by a mortar barrage near Bunker Hill. He fed her canned milk through a medicine dropper. The name, he explained, came from the fact that she was born at the wrong place at the wrong time.
