Swimming Cat Saves 9 U.S. Sailors

1920

Feline's Instinct Leads Crew of Boat to Safety

GRANGEMOUTH, Firth of Forth, Scotland, March 25. -- Nine men of the crew of the American steamer Lake Eliko were saved from drowning recently by the instinct of the ship's cat to swim toward the steamer in a storm and darkness when their small boat foundered at midnight between the ship and the shore. John Shortne, 33, a sailor of Marlboro, Mass., and Gilmer Stroud, 17, the messroom boy, of North Carolina, were drowned.

The eleven members of the crew had been ashore on leave. They had with them the ship's cat. A storm began while they were ashore, and when they were some distance out on their return journey to the steamer the boat capsized.

In the darkness no one could make out the lights of the ship. Tabby, however, with her instinctive desire to get out of the water as quickly as possible, swam directly toward the steamer. The men swam after her and nine of them reached the ship. The other two went down.

The Lake Eliko cleared for Norfolk, Va.

--The Saturday Blade, Chicago, March 27, 1920, page 1.