I work with Veterans and love cats so this was the perfect book. So much info I had no idea about! And the cover is absurdly adorable. Highly recommend the read ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Cats in the Navy is a fun and endlessly fascinating read. I knew that cats had served aboard ships to catch rats, but I didn’t realize that early on rats posed more of a problem than spreading disease or eating provisions.

“During the Age of Sail, rodents presented another danger because they would skitter through magazines and track gunpowder throughout the ship. Eventually, the trail could become a de facto fuse leading back to the magazine, which might then be accidentally lit by lamps or the fires in the galley. As navies modernized, rats posed further problems by getting stuck in machinery and disabling equipment, thus putting ships at risk during combat.”

That’s intense!

Cats did useful work on ships for the navies of the world and they also traveled the world, sometimes switching ships. They provided entertainment and comfort. There are stories of cats helping shipwrecked crews survive by catching rats and fish for the sailors to eat. One crew said the comfort their cat gave them maintained their sanity while adrift. Others swore that cats’ nocturnal vision helped spot rescue ships at night. This book is loaded with interesting stories and facts. Did you know cats make their own Vitamin C so never suffer from scurvy?

Mystery writers, take note of this fun fact: Cats inadvertently helped U.S. agents during prohibition. They were known to give away the location of illegal alcohol caches by running to their hiding place when startled, a hiding place that was often where the booze was hidden.

The layout of Cats in the Navy makes it a book you can easily read straight through, or pick up here and there. On the left-hand page is text with interesting historic tidbits, and the right-hand page features a vintage cat photo. Part I is A History of Cats at Sea, Part II is The Many Roles of the Ship’s Cat, and Part III is Claws of fame.

This book belongs on the shelves of all cat lovers and will make an excellent gift for the cat lover in your life. Sailors and history buffs will also enjoy this book.

Princess Fuzzypants here: Cats and Sailors. For e0ns the two went together in purrfect harmony. Cats provided pest control, keeping food stocks safe. They also provided comfort and companionship to men who spent long periods of time at sea. Being a ship’s cat was an honourable job for a cat. Sometimes we stayed with one ship and one crew but we always reserved the right to climb aboard any ship that took our fancy. A life at sea was satisfying but it could also be dangerous.

The book is filled with stories about many of the more notable ship’s cats. Some met sad ends. Others seemed unsinkable. All of the stories are interesting and a pawsome way to spend several hours. We are no longer allowed onboard thanks to modern health regulations. Pfft! I think the ships are the worse for the lack of our presence. After all, we kitties add so much to any situation. Five purrs and two paws up.

This was beyond cute! I never knew that cats were used in the Navy like this, so it was really interesting to read about the history in a fun way. The pictures were adorable and I even shared some of the little stories with my friends. I think a lot of people could enjoy this, cat lovers, military enthusiasts... I think it could even be fun for a children's classroom! 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

For anyone who has scrolled through pictures of cute kitties on any social media page - this book is for you.

Christenson unearths an astounding amount of photos and facts about cats that served in the British and American navies in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a heavy emphasis on WWII. I would have preferred if the book had been arranged chronologically, but it still manages to cover a lot of ground.

Cats have always been prized for the ability to perform pest control, and while that was a major part of their role onboard, Christenson shows how these cats did a lot to help keep these men <i>sane</i>.

Decades before any sort of mental health services were available for people in the armed services, these cats helped remind these men to stay playful, to laugh, and to care about others - especially those smaller than them.

The cats personalities radiated off the page, most of them only reluctantly posing for the camera, all of them well aware they deserved to be worshipped.

An excellent history book about a side of military life not often spotlighted.

I'm seriously a cat-enthusiast so how could I not love this book?! I enjoyed every single part of it. The writing was fluent and I finished it in 2 days.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an E-arc for this book. Cats in the Navy is a non fiction book covering the history of cats roles in the navy. It is quite short and is packed full of very cute pictures, anecdotes and facts. I really enjoyed this and I learnt a lot about the role of cats in the navy. I was aware that cats were often found on navy ships until recently but I did not know the full history and how close the relationship was between the cat and the ship. I would recommend this to everyone especially those who have a cat. I gave this book 4 stars.

How can you not love this book?! Cute and interesting coffee table book that would make a purr-fect present for a feline-loving friend or family member. I loved the old photos and illustrations and the accompanying text was great bite-sized information.

Cats. Cats. Cats. Most of us love them, but this gives a fantastic view of some history of cats. In navy. In very simple and eye comforting designed pages you get to know all about their role in the navy. Great trivia and facts with plenty of lovely pictures. Great to gift to somebody or to just read it for more information you probably did not know. I enjoyed it and cant wait to get my hands on a printed copy for me and my friends who are also big cat lovers.

I am a cats lover and used-to-be cats owner who are always on the look out for some cats related books. Then suddenly i saw this book here on NetGalley, i just had to read it. Thank you Naval Institute Press for granting my request to read an e-Arc copy of this entertaining book!.

This book is said to be a hardcover book, filled with about 80 very adorable photos of cats who served in the navy that are going to make anyone go, "awww...so cute!" as you turn those pages, and i am one of such person. The layout of the book is basically alternating between some written texts on the history of the felines in the navy and some black and white photos of the cats and the navy members. However, it is just a very quick read as the written texts is laid out only in one page and written in a fun,entertaining and very amusing way that is guarantee to make you laugh out loud as you turn those pages because i did!.

Overall, it is a bittersweet recollections of history. The history of the furry sailors, of the very important roles they play in the navy and how they leave the deepest and biggest mark on those navy lives and in ours as well. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a fun and entertaining read,regardless if you are a cat lover or not. I mean who can resist looking at those cute cats wearing their sailor's costumes and hats?!.

Little did i know what a big mark and very important role cats had in the navy, as usually we are used to hearing stories about dogs,pigeons/birds,horses,elephants and even the dolphins roles in the military and in war but rarely about cats! So,why not let this be the first, new experience for you?.

Sometimes after reading some of the heavier material I normally end up reading, I need a nice bit of fluffy escapism to lift me up. One of my low-key favorites is reading or listening to stories about animals during wartime or in the military service. This is assuming I’m not listening to or reading stories about Russian “tank dogs”, or some such, as that’s insanely depressing. Cats in the Navy by Scot Christenson, and published by The US Naval Institute Press, is one such light-hearted book that takes a rather in depth look at The military use of feline “soldiers” to keep ships vermin and disease free. Spanning over a century of historic records, this book is a fun look at a rather overlooked topic.

“Cats were seen as omens in ancient times but eventually became trusted animal companions to those who sailed the seas. From catching rats at docks and on ships at sea, cats often became mascots to the navies around the globe. Filled with informative text and more than eighty photos, Cats in the Navy provides a fun history of our feline friends who rode the waves with us.”

The format of this book is largely that of a photography book with around one hundred images of cats in the service of various naval ships. These pictures alternate between pages of written text, usually outlining the images you are looking at and what importance they hold. The book itself is a hardcover 8×10 volume and will look great on any military history lover’s bookshelf, although for this review I was only able to see a digital version. Most of the photographs are black and white (the reason will come later), so I liked the use of color in the book – vibrant yellows and blues, to make the photos pop and give the book a warm, almost nostalgic feeling.

As with many fun things, the use of cats in The Navy was largely upended in the 1950s due to the government seeing the practice as both frivolous and costly to American taxpayers. Considering the infamous stories of Government Appropriations of ten thousand dollar coffee pots, fifty dollar screws, and other vaguely questionable things the general public actually know about – having a cat or dog onboard a ship seems like small potatoes, but I digress. Due to this, most images, with a few exceptions, are from WWI and WWII.

Fans of seeing cute cat photos will love this book, as seeing cats in little sailor costumes and sleeping in little cat hammocks is pretty fun. I say this as a grown thirty-nine year old man that listens to metal music, cat pictures can brighten any day. Some of the sailor superstitions in the book were very interesting to read about, namely the belief that if a ship’s cat was seen trying to abandon the ship before it departed at port signaled and upcoming disaster, or a random catfight aboard a ship was actually The Devil himself battling an angel for the souls of the sailors aboard.

Overall, this book was an entertaining quick read and would be a perfect gift for a cat lover or military enthusiast alike. If my step-father, who was a Navy Veteran and cat enthusiast, was still around I’m sure he would have loved this book. I’m glad the book stayed on the lighter end of things, because reading about some of the ship cats that likely didn’t make it would have been too much of a bummer, so kudos to the author. When thinking about this topic, One previous book by USNI and their comic imprint Dead Reckoning comes to mind, Four-Fisted Tales, so if you also like this sort of thing, check that out as well.