About That Darn Cat-- Part 2: Why Did He Put the Cat in the Cannon?

Francis Butts, in his account of the sinking of the USS Monitor, came up with a really good human interest story and that had to do with a cat.

According to him, while bailing water out of the Monitor's famous turret, he plugged one of the two cannons in it with his boots and coat.  (Why he would do this with the ship in that condition, I wouldn't know.)  Then, he saw "a black cat... sitting on the breech of one of the guns howling.

"...I caught her, wrote the sailor, "and, placing her  in another gun, replaced the wad and tampion, but I could still hear that distressing howl."

He never explained why he decided to do that with the cat.  Was he trying to save it or maybe quiet the howling?

Archaeologists are keeping this story in mind as they drill out the insides of those cannons.

What if they find the bones of a cat in one of the cannons?

When I was talking about the sinking of the Monitor to my classes of 7th graders, the cat story drew more interest than any other aspect of the ship.

--Cat, Or, No Cat.  --Old B-R'er

About That Darn Cat-- Part 1: Why Researchers Are Checking Out the USS Monitor's Cannons

From the March 6, Smithsonian magazine "Why did restorers search a Civil War battleship's guns for the remains of a black cat?" by Theresa Machemer.

Naval warfare changed forever on March 9, 1862, when the USS Monitor fought the CSS Virginia in Hampton Roads, Virginia.  The role of ironclads and rotating turrets set the wave of the future of naval architecture in motion.

Sadly, several months after the battle, the Monitor met her end when she sank in a gale off Cape Hatteras, N.C..

Well, what about the cat?

Monitor sailor Francis Butts of Rhode Island survived the wreck and several years after the war, wrote and account of the ship's sinking. This is where the story of the Monitor cat begins.

Cat, What Cat?  --Old B-Runner