Only Cat Who Saved Entire Ship from Sinking

cats have long since been mascots bringing good luck to ships sailors brought their furry friends on board to up their chances of sailing safely across unpredictable waters but this story is about the first cat ever to bring good luck to an airship in august of 1910 walter wellman an american traveler aeronaut and journalist decided to take an air trip across the atlantic something not yet achieved by anyone unfortunately he had to delay his journey until october for the airship dubbed america to be fully ready and thus wellman and his five-man crew got on board the craft on october 15th in atlantic city new jersey just before leaving the hangar though one of the crew members noticed a stray cat dozing off in the corner with a mischievous grin the man swooped upon the tabby and took it in his arms before the animal could protest which it did loudly when the crew got on board the cat was left in the lifeboat dangling under the main cabin of the ship at first the animal didn't understand what was going on and stayed still in the corner scared and confused but then the craft took to the air and kiddo so named unanimously by the crew let everyone know what he thought about his unwilling adventure within the first half hour of the journey the ship's navigator already wrote an entry in the log saying the cat was rushing around the airship like a squirrel in a cage ironic as it was the america happened to be the first airship equipped with a radio and the first ever radio message sent from an airborne craft was from the ship's engineer melvin venemet to the secretary on land roy come and get this darned cat in the end everybody grew tired of the cat's antics and agreed he had to go they caught him in a canvas bag no easy feet that and lowered it to the journalists following the airship on a motorboat but the sea had another opinion on the matter the water was so rough that the boat couldn't catch up and the bag with the cat inside probably even madder than before was hauled back on board and if you were wondering yes somebody did let the cat out of the bag kiddo grew much quieter then however realizing he could have been in a lot bigger trouble when the weather was fine he'd even climbed atop the lifeboat sail and bathed in the warm sun unfortunately for the furry guy the ship got into rough weather way too often and that was when the crew realized they were actually lucky to have the cat on board murray simon the ship's navigator said kiddo was better than any barometer whenever bad weather was approaching he knew about it well in advance and warned the crew he got grumpy and lay low hours before the storm even while the sun was still shining in the sky two or three times this behavior saved the aeronauts a lot of trouble and maybe even their lives when the storm finally came though the cat grew agitated and started howling and hissing the only thing that helped was covering the poor animal with a blanket and stowing him away in a hammock but one day kiddo grew unusually quiet even for himself he hid in the corner of the america and meowed pitifully the crew knew it wasn't a good sign and started getting ready for a big storm even though the weather was fine yet the animal instinct was right as always soon the sky to the northeast of the ship darkened and winds were rising rapidly in a matter of hours the strongest storm so far hit the airship and blew it way off the course the crew might have weathered the storm if not for another trouble the engines were failing the airship was quickly losing altitude and was threatening to fall into the roiling sea below unfortunately it was time to abandon the mission all five aeronauts and the cat clinging to one of the man's chest went down to the lifeboat and cut it off when they were low enough the airship free from the weight of the crew and the boat flew rapidly upwards and disappeared into the rain never to be seen again the crew battled the stormy ocean as best they could until they saw a ship in the distance the weather was getting better already so they turned on the morse lamp and set a distress signal to the vessel [Music] luckily they were noticed and the ship which turned out to be the british royal mail ship trent on its way to new york rescued the stranded adventurers kiddo the cat astonishingly was sleeping peacefully in a separate chamber of the lifeboat all the while that wasn't for long though as soon as he woke up on board the trent he showed his character once more this time to the new crew he howled and rushed along the deck this way and that driving everyone mad but the america's five crewmen now knew how to get him to calm down and quickly brought him a fresh meal that helped the cat got down to eating and was soon pretty much content with his life as one of the crew members put it they'd been right to have brought kiddo along on their journey after all cats have nine lives and this kitty sure spent at least one of his to save everyone on board the airship the trent safely delivered the crew to new york where they were met with ovation despite not crossing the atlantic the america still set the record as the longest traveling airship paving the way for future adventurers and the heroic cat received his fair share of glory too for a while he was displayed at the largest department store in new york resting on a soft cushion inside a gilded cage postcards were printed with him lying like a royalty there and then kiddo who was renamed trent after the ship that rescued him found a new home with walter wellman's daughter edith he spent the rest of his life in comfort and never traveled by air again dare we say a real posh pussycat

Channel: BRIGHT SIDE

Views: 67,809

Rating: 4.9201388 out of 5

Keywords: bright side, brightside, amazing stories, based on true stories, inspiring stories, hero animals, hero cats, inspiring stories about animals, touching stories, survival stories, heroic stories, acts of heroism, hero stories, real life heroes, true story of survival, cat Kiddo, cats who saved people, can cats predict weather, can cats protect you, can cats predict catastrophes, most famous cats, do cats protect you, famous cats in history, airship, airship stories, zeppelin

Id: iMZgVwn8yEU

Length: 6min 28sec (388 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 17 2021