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Military Cats, Part 2: Simon Saves the British · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
0:27
Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
0:30
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. Uh we are but as
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Speaker 1: always proud to be accompanied with our super producer fellow
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Speaker 1: cat lover, the one and only Max Williams. Give it
0:40
Speaker 1: up for him. Uh they called me Ben. This is
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Speaker 1: part two of our dive into the world of military cats. Uh,
0:50
Speaker 1: you don't know. Over the break our quote unquote break
0:55
Speaker 1: for this two part episode, I was thinking, do you
0:58
Speaker 1: think either either of your cat you've met my cats too,
1:01
Speaker 1: do you think any of our forecats would be military worthy? Oh? Man, Well,
1:08
Speaker 1: a previous cat of mine who still exists. His name
1:11
Speaker 1: is Fernando a k A. Robert a k A. No,
1:15
Speaker 1: I think that's the only two names you guys. Um,
1:17
Speaker 1: he was an indoor outdoor is an indoor outdoor cat.
1:20
Speaker 1: I think it's definitely a requirement for a military cat.
1:23
Speaker 1: You gotta be able to rough it in the out
1:25
Speaker 1: of doors. And he would just, you know, do some
1:27
Speaker 1: really intense stealth kills and present his his prey to
1:33
Speaker 1: me and my my former roommate in the most elaborate
1:36
Speaker 1: and bizarre of way. It's pretty sure that cat is
1:38
Speaker 1: a bit of a psychopath. He killed like a rabbit,
1:41
Speaker 1: like a full grown rabbit. So yeah, I think Robert
1:43
Speaker 1: would probably definitely cut it, probably in some sort of
1:45
Speaker 1: weird black ops kind of assassination squad perhaps. Yeah. Um,
1:52
Speaker 1: I think Dr Bankman is more of a lover than
1:55
Speaker 1: a fighter, more scientists than a scholar than a soldier.
1:59
Speaker 1: But the other cat, the cat of many names, would
2:02
Speaker 1: go full Colonel Kurtz. For anyone familiar with Heart of Darkness.
2:07
Speaker 1: I think they would have to send the equivalent of
2:11
Speaker 1: of a special cat operative to stop his reign of terror. Luckily, uh,
2:16
Speaker 1: the cat we're talking about today in Part two of
2:19
Speaker 1: our Military Cats episode is not a feline Colonel Kurtz.
2:24
Speaker 1: His name is Simon. As we said in part one, cats,
2:29
Speaker 1: like many animals, have been accompanying humans into war for
2:33
Speaker 1: a very very long time. I believe one of our
2:36
Speaker 1: first examples was ancient Egypt. But this guy, Simon, this
2:41
Speaker 1: cat had such an amazing story that we decided to
2:46
Speaker 1: dedicate an entire episode to him. Yeah, you may recall
2:49
Speaker 1: from episode one. If you haven't listened to that one,
2:51
Speaker 1: by the way, you should. But this woman will stand alone,
2:54
Speaker 1: so if you don't want to write away, you can
2:56
Speaker 1: hold it off for another day. But part one is
2:58
Speaker 1: a doozy. And then then we talk about a pair
3:00
Speaker 1: of cats named Faith in Panda during the London Blitz
3:04
Speaker 1: of World War two around nineteen thirty six, and Faith
3:09
Speaker 1: was nominated for what's called a Dicken Medal, which we
3:12
Speaker 1: describe which is like this like medal of valor specifically
3:16
Speaker 1: given to animals. Faith was nominated, but she did not
3:20
Speaker 1: make the cut. She was not eligible because she was
3:23
Speaker 1: a civilian cat. But she did get a medal for
3:26
Speaker 1: bravery anyway, like a special you know, kind of like
3:29
Speaker 1: a like a participation awards sort of but still really
3:32
Speaker 1: nice for a faith. Today's cat, Simon, is the only
3:37
Speaker 1: cat to ever receive this prestigious animal award, the Dicken Medal,
3:43
Speaker 1: the highest British honor for valor in the field of battle. Yeah,
3:47
Speaker 1: this guy, Simon has been reported on in Time dot com,
3:53
Speaker 1: has been reported on in uh per infer dot org.
3:57
Speaker 1: Of course the massively fam us in the United Kingdom
4:01
Speaker 1: by our friends at mental Floss as well. So we
4:05
Speaker 1: just want to give another shout out to Jackie mead
4:08
Speaker 1: Over at Mental Floss for the excellent work on war
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Speaker 1: cats or cat war heroes. Here's Simon's origin story. Simon
4:18
Speaker 1: is a stray. It's there's a seventeen year old with
4:22
Speaker 1: the name George Hickenbottom who brings Simon from Hong Kong
4:28
Speaker 1: to his ship, the HMS Amethysts and not going Afterwards,
4:33
Speaker 1: the Amethyst gets their orders. They are to proceed up
4:36
Speaker 1: the Young Sea River to guard the British embassy from
4:40
Speaker 1: the Chinese Communist Revolution. Halfway there, the ship takes fire
4:45
Speaker 1: from the p l A, the People's Liberation Army. Simon,
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Speaker 1: similar to Pouli that we mentioned in our previous episode,
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Speaker 1: is snoozing during the fight. He's sleeping in the cabin's
4:57
Speaker 1: quarters when a shell goes through the bulkhead and Simon
5:00
Speaker 1: gets his first wartime injuries. He has shrapnel in his legs,
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Speaker 1: his face and his back are burned. The ship runs
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Speaker 1: the ground and they can't like other British sources, can't
5:12
Speaker 1: rescue them because there's too much enemy fire. Yeah, if
5:16
Speaker 1: you want to see a picture of Simon, highly recommend
5:20
Speaker 1: uh jumping on over to p d s a dot Org,
5:24
Speaker 1: which is an animal welfare organization. They have a whole
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Speaker 1: page about Simon Um and his time on the d
5:30
Speaker 1: M fifty four destroyer, and there's a really great picture
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Speaker 1: of him with some crew members get have given him
5:36
Speaker 1: a good little scritch, But he is a tough looking cat,
5:40
Speaker 1: let me tell you. He's just got this look about
5:43
Speaker 1: him like he's seen some stuff. And that's because he
5:46
Speaker 1: has seen some stuff. And yeah, the seventeen year old
5:49
Speaker 1: who was what's known as an ordinary seaman. That's probably
5:52
Speaker 1: the lowest rank that you can get on a naval vessel. Uh, seventeen.
5:56
Speaker 1: I guess they must have been playing a little fast
5:58
Speaker 1: and loose with enlistment aged Limon, so maybe it was
6:00
Speaker 1: just younger back then. Um. But he actually he takes
6:04
Speaker 1: a shine to this little school, scrawny stray and he decides,
6:08
Speaker 1: I Am going to smuggle this cat onto my ship,
6:13
Speaker 1: which is called the Amethyst. So there's a guy, you know,
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Speaker 1: like a guard or whatever, and George Hickenbottom hides the
6:21
Speaker 1: cat under his dress, you know, his this sailor's suit,
6:24
Speaker 1: his tunic, and he takes him to his tiny, tiny
6:27
Speaker 1: bunk that's where he keeps him. And George was eventually
6:32
Speaker 1: appointed captain of the Fox Soul. It seems like it's
6:37
Speaker 1: some kind of British slang that was used in uh
6:39
Speaker 1: in military parlance. Um, but what that basically means is
6:43
Speaker 1: like he's in charge of like scrubbing the toilest with
6:46
Speaker 1: the toothbrush and making sure everything is neat and tidy.
6:49
Speaker 1: He's essentially like the maid for the whole ship. Forecastle's forecastle.
6:55
Speaker 1: It's the upper deck of a sailing ship, uh, the
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Speaker 1: forward part of a ship, of the sailor's living quarters.
7:01
Speaker 1: So it's a humorous title, yes, exactly, very tongue in cheek,
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Speaker 1: very British indeed. But of course, I mean, come on, cats,
7:10
Speaker 1: you can't really hide the cat forever. I don't know
7:13
Speaker 1: if anyone's ever tried to hide one from their landlord
7:15
Speaker 1: to keep from paying a pet deposit. I sure have.
7:17
Speaker 1: But inevitably, they don't really like to be controlled. You know,
7:20
Speaker 1: they are gonna do what they're gonna do, and whether
7:22
Speaker 1: that means me alling when you block them in a
7:25
Speaker 1: room or something like that, or shut them away so
7:26
Speaker 1: no one sees them, they're certainly not going to play
7:28
Speaker 1: along with whatever your schemes might be. So yeah, the
7:31
Speaker 1: captain of the ship eventually met Simon thankfully. Though the captain,
7:36
Speaker 1: Lieutenant Commander Ian Griffiths, really doug cats. He had several
7:42
Speaker 1: family cats back home. UM, so this was a fortuitous
7:46
Speaker 1: encounter and he didn't reprimand George at all. In fact,
7:49
Speaker 1: he was he was kind of excited about it. And
7:51
Speaker 1: it turns out that the Amethyst needed a ship cat.
7:55
Speaker 1: This is the thing we talked about this. Throughout the
7:57
Speaker 1: history of the military, there have been cat employed to
8:01
Speaker 1: keep the pest population down on a ship. Especially that
8:05
Speaker 1: can be a thing. There are definitely rats that can
8:07
Speaker 1: get aboard ships at different ports and they can clean
8:11
Speaker 1: out food supplies and all the rations, and that can
8:13
Speaker 1: be a real problem, and they can carry diseases, especially
8:17
Speaker 1: if you're traveling in real humid, kind of nasty hot weather,
8:21
Speaker 1: which they were. So the captain allows George to keep
8:25
Speaker 1: the cat and allows the cat to occupy that role.
8:29
Speaker 1: But since George is the foxel or the forecastle, um,
8:33
Speaker 1: he's also responsible for cleaning up after the cat. Uh.
8:37
Speaker 1: And the captain, according to George himself, says that if
8:40
Speaker 1: he sees any cat droppings cat leavings aboard the ship,
8:45
Speaker 1: he would quote have me up on a charge. Uh.
8:49
Speaker 1: And he actually got a lot of help and support
8:51
Speaker 1: from his crewmates who also liked the cat um so
8:54
Speaker 1: any uh they called it muck that was seen was
8:58
Speaker 1: quickly thrown overboard. And you can find a lot of
9:01
Speaker 1: these accounts in that fabulous article from per and for
9:05
Speaker 1: dot org, which is a lovely name for a cat website. Yes,
9:10
Speaker 1: and uh, Simon did something that I understand but don't
9:15
Speaker 1: philosophically respect. Uh. He was a social climber. He was
9:20
Speaker 1: in the networking and nepotism. Uh. He of course made
9:24
Speaker 1: friends with everybody, but he really wanted to make friends
9:27
Speaker 1: with the captain. And we must assume that there was
9:30
Speaker 1: something he could sense about the hierarchy of a ship.
9:34
Speaker 1: And also side note um George Hickenbottom at seventeen was
9:41
Speaker 1: it was legally enlisted. Even now, at least in the
9:44
Speaker 1: u S. Seventeen is the minimum age for enlistment for people.
9:49
Speaker 1: But but is that too young to go to war?
9:52
Speaker 1: I definitely think it affects someone's outlook later in life anyway.
9:57
Speaker 1: So Simon's one of those things where if you can't
9:59
Speaker 1: like seventeen year olds, there's a lot of things seventeen
10:02
Speaker 1: year olds can't. They can't buy alcohol, again, drink in
10:05
Speaker 1: a bar. They can't buy cigarettes or vapes in these days.
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Speaker 1: It just feels like a little bit of a stretch
10:13
Speaker 1: for to expect them to be able to, you know,
10:16
Speaker 1: die for their country when their country doesn't treat them
10:19
Speaker 1: as a full human in other respects. None of those
10:21
Speaker 1: things are like the end all be all of what
10:22
Speaker 1: it means to be alive, but it still does feel
10:24
Speaker 1: I've always felt that was a little bit of a mismatch. Well,
10:27
Speaker 1: you do get exceptions when you're in the military because
10:30
Speaker 1: of that very reason. Those laws, those laws are different
10:33
Speaker 1: from military members, but also the human brain is not
10:36
Speaker 1: fully fully developed until the mid twenties, so anyway, anyway,
10:41
Speaker 1: that's a story for a different episode. But here's what happens.
10:45
Speaker 1: Simon is all about kissing up and he becomes an
10:49
Speaker 1: honor student. If he's not hanging out in George's room,
10:52
Speaker 1: he's hanging out at the captain's cabin. And when he
10:55
Speaker 1: kills rats, he's you can either say he's trying to
10:59
Speaker 1: curry favor her or he's trying to brag, because he
11:04
Speaker 1: starts taking some of these dead animals to the captain directly,
11:09
Speaker 1: sometimes even leaving them on his bunk, and Captain Griffiths
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Speaker 1: and Simon really dig each other like this cat will
11:19
Speaker 1: follow Griffith's around. And then if Griffith's like whistles or
11:23
Speaker 1: you know, if you have ever lived with a cat,
11:25
Speaker 1: you know the move like sport. Uh yeah, then uh,
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Speaker 1: Simon will come running to Griffith's. And no one had
11:36
Speaker 1: a like a soul responsibility for feeding him, but he
11:40
Speaker 1: always he never went hungry. Everybody loved him, and they
11:44
Speaker 1: all like you know, they all wanted to give him
11:47
Speaker 1: treats and wanted to pediment stuff. So this is a
11:49
Speaker 1: pretty great situation for Simon. In December of that year,
11:53
Speaker 1: a new captain comes aboard a guide, him Captain Skinner.
11:58
Speaker 1: Luckily for Simon and for the crew, Skinner also digs cats,
12:02
Speaker 1: and so Simon leaves pretty much lives his life as
12:07
Speaker 1: he did before under the rule of Griffiths. So now
12:11
Speaker 1: things are going pretty well until that faithful river trip
12:16
Speaker 1: we teased in the beginning. Maybe we can talk a
12:26
Speaker 1: little bit about what was going on in context here.
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Speaker 1: It's doubtlessly something by the way that Simon as a
12:33
Speaker 1: cat would not care about. But here's what's going on.
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Speaker 1: There is a brutal, bloody civil war in the Nation
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Speaker 1: of China, Communist insurgents for the People's Liberation Army p
12:45
Speaker 1: l A led by Mause Dong and the ruling Nationalist
12:50
Speaker 1: Party of Tchang Kai Shek. The country is embroiled in
12:53
Speaker 1: this and the Amethyst is ordered up the river up
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Speaker 1: Young z from Shanghai. It's and Un King to relieve
13:01
Speaker 1: another ship called the HMS Consort. The Consort had been
13:05
Speaker 1: guarding the British embassy for a while, but they needed
13:10
Speaker 1: some time off, and time was of the essence because
13:15
Speaker 1: both sides of the civil war had signed a ceasefire agreement.
13:19
Speaker 1: That ceasefire agreement had an expiration date midnight on April
13:25
Speaker 1: fighting could resume, so Mao's People's Liberation Army um, we're
13:29
Speaker 1: holding the north side of the Yangtze and these nationals
13:35
Speaker 1: were controlling the south bank, and Britain hadn't really picked
13:39
Speaker 1: a side yet in this conflict. They weren't expecting it
13:42
Speaker 1: to be an all out blood bath. British officials, however,
13:46
Speaker 1: believed that the Amethyst could reach Nan King in time
13:50
Speaker 1: to take advantage of the ceasefire. But then on the
13:54
Speaker 1: morning of April the Amethyst was sixty miles from the
13:59
Speaker 1: city when the ceasefire abruptly came to an end from
14:04
Speaker 1: the north shore. Uh. There were explosions all around, gunfire, mortar,
14:10
Speaker 1: all of that good stuff, and an explosion hit the ship,
14:15
Speaker 1: and the bridge and the wheelhouse and the power room
14:19
Speaker 1: took the brunt of that impact. The ship got hit
14:23
Speaker 1: more than fifty times, and nineteen of his crew, including
14:28
Speaker 1: the captain, lost their lives on that attack on April
14:33
Speaker 1: um seven were injured, and Uh the Amethist eventually was
14:39
Speaker 1: able to limp away and taking refuge in a shelter
14:44
Speaker 1: in a creek that was a little bit upstream. So
14:47
Speaker 1: essentially the Communist had the Amethyst backed into a corner.
14:51
Speaker 1: They were running scared. Um. So there was a series
14:56
Speaker 1: of negotiations that then began um with the Communist to
14:59
Speaker 1: allow them to you know, let them go on their
15:01
Speaker 1: merry way. Yeah, this is what I was talking about earlier.
15:04
Speaker 1: So we think Simon was most likely snooze in a
15:08
Speaker 1: way and in a cabin somewhere when a Chinese shell
15:13
Speaker 1: knocked a huge hole in the hull of the ship.
15:17
Speaker 1: Shards of shrapnel hit this sleeping cat in his back
15:21
Speaker 1: and his legs and as he's either running or he's
15:25
Speaker 1: thrown by the explosion. I think he's running due to
15:29
Speaker 1: our conversations with the amazing Rachel Lance, the world's pre
15:33
Speaker 1: eminent expert on maritime explosions. Simon's face has burned, his
15:38
Speaker 1: whiskers and eyebrows gets singed. He has you know, traumatic injuries.
15:44
Speaker 1: He crawls as far out of the way as he can.
15:46
Speaker 1: He passes out. He's missing for several days, but eventually
15:50
Speaker 1: he staggers on deck and another Griffiths, not the former captain,
15:54
Speaker 1: a petty officer named George Griffiths, finds him and, like
15:58
Speaker 1: you would with any other sailor, he has taken to
16:02
Speaker 1: sick bay. He's in terrible shape. He's weak, he's dehydrated.
16:06
Speaker 1: He hasn't recovered from miss injuries. Medical officer named Michael
16:11
Speaker 1: Fearingly goes to work removing the shrapnel in a couple
16:14
Speaker 1: of different places, stitching Simon's body up and then looking
16:18
Speaker 1: at his face. They were concerned he might have gone
16:21
Speaker 1: deaf due to being so close to the blast, and
16:24
Speaker 1: they also find that his heart seems incredibly weak, so
16:30
Speaker 1: Fearingly has to be the bearer of bad news. And
16:34
Speaker 1: he tells the crew, yes, Simon survived, but he's not
16:38
Speaker 1: out of the woods yet. So they're trying to figure
16:43
Speaker 1: out what to do. And then a guy who's not
16:45
Speaker 1: a cat fan enters the fray, Lieutenant Commander John Kieran's.
16:50
Speaker 1: He had come across land from Nan King and now
16:54
Speaker 1: that Captain Skinner was dead, he was in charge of
16:57
Speaker 1: the Amethyst, and he was like, look, I don't like cats.
17:00
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna let this cat sleep in the captain's quarters.
17:04
Speaker 1: And so now the cats start sleeping in the and
17:08
Speaker 1: the petty officers mess which is like, you know, the
17:11
Speaker 1: lunch room. Uh. And then he's just you know, if
17:14
Speaker 1: you've ever had a pet that's been injured, you know,
17:16
Speaker 1: when it's touch and go, you try to make them
17:18
Speaker 1: as comfortable as possible. There's not really anything you do
17:21
Speaker 1: but hope they pulled through. That's right. Um, And the
17:25
Speaker 1: ship doctor doctor Fearnley suggested that Simon actually live a
17:30
Speaker 1: little closer to the sick bay, um, because him being
17:35
Speaker 1: you know, convalescing cat could potentially boost moral for the
17:39
Speaker 1: the young crewmen who were there trying to recover from
17:42
Speaker 1: their wounds as well. This attack, after all, was a
17:45
Speaker 1: huge hit to moral that's about as big a hit
17:48
Speaker 1: as you can take. Is one of the form of
17:50
Speaker 1: a mortar round. They get shot at your ship. They
17:52
Speaker 1: had lost their fellow crew members. There was a lot
17:55
Speaker 1: of sadness and suffering and uh, you know, people really
18:00
Speaker 1: wondering what was next for them, and so having this
18:03
Speaker 1: cat around because he also had to endure those same adversities,
18:09
Speaker 1: it was really kind of like a solidarity situation, like
18:12
Speaker 1: a real boost them around. They felt that they were
18:14
Speaker 1: all kind of in this together. And it's silly sounding
18:18
Speaker 1: in a way, but it's also really really moving because
18:20
Speaker 1: if you think about it, I could see how that
18:23
Speaker 1: would exactly be the case, just feeling like, oh this
18:25
Speaker 1: cat make if this cat could make it, this little
18:27
Speaker 1: scrappy guy, that we can make it too. Yeah, that's
18:31
Speaker 1: that's exactly what happens. So Simon is is familiar with
18:36
Speaker 1: the ways of hierarchies and oceans now and he tries
18:40
Speaker 1: to win over this lieutenant commander who would be like,
18:43
Speaker 1: if there were a bad guy in or in this
18:45
Speaker 1: Pixar film that I'm seeing, it would be this lieutenant
18:49
Speaker 1: commander Karen's So Simon gives him a dead rat as
18:53
Speaker 1: a present. This guy is now captain the ship, has
18:56
Speaker 1: no idea what to do, so he just it's funny, Gus.
19:00
Speaker 1: He like he knows it's a gift, and so like
19:02
Speaker 1: re leads down and pet Simon for the first time.
19:05
Speaker 1: Wait still, Cimon's nott paid attention throws the rat overboard,
19:09
Speaker 1: but he has now sort of taught Simon that you
19:13
Speaker 1: will be rewarded for rats, which becomes very important very quickly,
19:18
Speaker 1: and they, uh, they befriend each other. The Pixar moment
19:21
Speaker 1: is when the captain takes sick. He gets a virus
19:24
Speaker 1: and he's bedridden for a few days, and so Simon
19:27
Speaker 1: starts hanging out with him. Uh, and then from that
19:30
Speaker 1: point on Kerans and Simon's are friends. But while that's happening, Look,
19:35
Speaker 1: the Amethyst got rocked in the worst way. The ship
19:39
Speaker 1: is really deteriorating. Rations have to be cut in half
19:44
Speaker 1: because the Chinese forces that are kind of keeping them
19:48
Speaker 1: locked in there, they're not supplying food and they're not
19:51
Speaker 1: allowing things to come through. Uh. The negotiations aren't going
19:56
Speaker 1: well because the Chinese forces want the British to say
20:00
Speaker 1: the Amethyst had fired first, and that's not true. So
20:05
Speaker 1: the British aren't going to aren't going to play ball here.
20:09
Speaker 1: So the ship and its crew are stranded and that
20:12
Speaker 1: little creek for almost ten weeks. This is bad. Ten hot, sticky, gross,
20:21
Speaker 1: humid weeks. And of course, as we talked about, that
20:25
Speaker 1: hot wet condition is really really a good one for
20:31
Speaker 1: rat breeding. Uh So that became a thing. The food
20:36
Speaker 1: supplies were in really really serious danger of being consumed
20:40
Speaker 1: by the now teeming piles of rats that were on
20:44
Speaker 1: the ship. And let's make no mistake, these were not
20:47
Speaker 1: like cute little white rats you know that you see
20:50
Speaker 1: perched on people's shoulders and stuff, or running around in mazes.
20:54
Speaker 1: Uh these were nasty guys. These were attack rats, vicious
20:59
Speaker 1: rat it, you know, just absolutely feral, massive rats. One
21:04
Speaker 1: particularly nasty one, which the crew members nicknamed mouth say tongue,
21:08
Speaker 1: would repeatedly attack the food supplies and learned to evade
21:16
Speaker 1: the traps that were set for it. Uh So, with
21:19
Speaker 1: Simon finally took this bastard out, the crew were absolutely
21:24
Speaker 1: beside themselves. They promoted Simon to able seacat, which is
21:28
Speaker 1: the cat equivalent of able seamen, which would be you
21:31
Speaker 1: know a higher rank of like a kind of just
21:33
Speaker 1: basic crewman, and they again symbolic he was already this
21:38
Speaker 1: amazing symbol of resilience. Now he was literally helping them
21:43
Speaker 1: survive by killing these nasty rats that were going after
21:47
Speaker 1: their food in a very real way. And this is
21:50
Speaker 1: an unsustainable situation. Despite Simon's heroism, there's almost only so
21:55
Speaker 1: much he can do. So it's nearly three months after
21:58
Speaker 1: that original attack. Negotiations are at a stand still, and
22:03
Speaker 1: the captain is thinking, look, negotiations are growing nowhere. We're
22:07
Speaker 1: running out of fuel, we're running out of food. At
22:11
Speaker 1: some point we're gonna have to make a run for it.
22:19
Speaker 1: So he waits until the night of July. The moon
22:24
Speaker 1: is included. There's a very low light, and there's a
22:28
Speaker 1: merchant vessel named the kang Ling Liberation that's passing the Amethyst.
22:33
Speaker 1: It's heading down the river. At about ten pm. The
22:36
Speaker 1: captain seizes the moment and he makes a hundred and
22:40
Speaker 1: four mile run down to the open ocean. The enemy
22:45
Speaker 1: is not super aggressive, probably because the Amethysts got very lucky.
22:50
Speaker 1: It took him five hours and they made it. They
22:53
Speaker 1: ran into the HMS Concord part way up a river
22:57
Speaker 1: called the Hong Pooh south of Wu Song, and they
23:00
Speaker 1: escorted the rest of the way. The captain sends this
23:02
Speaker 1: message say have rejoined the fleet south of Wusung. No
23:05
Speaker 1: damage your casualties. God save the king. Uh So their
23:10
Speaker 1: ordeal is over. They've been held hostage for a hundred
23:12
Speaker 1: and one days. Their cruising back to believe it or not,
23:17
Speaker 1: Simon's own birthplace, Hong Kong. On August first. There's a
23:21
Speaker 1: special ceremony on deck um that represents everything the crew
23:26
Speaker 1: has been through. The officers and the and the crew
23:29
Speaker 1: are standing at attention. One person's holding Simon, and George
23:34
Speaker 1: Griffith's who he mentioned earlier, is reading out a citation
23:40
Speaker 1: where able seacats Simon is awarded the Amethyst Campaign Ribbon.
23:46
Speaker 1: Uh This, as we mentioned the very beginning. Receiving these
23:50
Speaker 1: prestigious awards like the Dickle make Simon unique in the
23:56
Speaker 1: history of animals in the military. And this guy comes
24:00
Speaker 1: in international celebrity. It's covered in the movies, it's covered
24:04
Speaker 1: in the news. Cameras are recording their ship's arrival in
24:07
Speaker 1: Hong Kong, and Simon is is well. I'd say he's
24:11
Speaker 1: kind of posing for pictures. He's a cat. You know,
24:13
Speaker 1: someone's holding them or someone's waiting until he stops for
24:16
Speaker 1: a second. They're like click click click click click for sure.
24:19
Speaker 1: And like I was saying, you can see pictures of
24:22
Speaker 1: the cat, there's tons of them out there on on
24:24
Speaker 1: several of the articles that we cited. And he is
24:27
Speaker 1: a tough looking dude, really really interesting features and in
24:32
Speaker 1: the very weathered world where he kind of vibe to him.
24:35
Speaker 1: But as we said at the top of the show,
24:37
Speaker 1: this became a massive story. Like you said, he was
24:41
Speaker 1: an overnight sensation, and he became this international symbol of uh,
24:47
Speaker 1: you know, resilience and and the ability to kind of
24:50
Speaker 1: come back and push through all of the horrible, horrific
24:53
Speaker 1: things that people saw an experience during World War Two. So,
24:57
Speaker 1: while the ship was being repaired in Hong Kong, the
25:00
Speaker 1: Armed Forces Mascot Club, which is part of the pv
25:05
Speaker 1: s A, which I believe that's the website we were
25:08
Speaker 1: talking about, that is a longstanding UK organization for you know,
25:12
Speaker 1: devoted to the welfare of animals, not not just cats,
25:17
Speaker 1: all animals, and they suggested that the captain or the
25:22
Speaker 1: military give Simon an official commendation that he should be
25:27
Speaker 1: awarded the prestigious Dicken Metal for animal gallantry. It was
25:33
Speaker 1: also referred to often as the Animals Victoria Cross, which
25:37
Speaker 1: is the highest military honor that you can get in
25:40
Speaker 1: the UK. And again, how heartwarman is this? People reply
25:43
Speaker 1: to this request and they write testimonials, one captain writing, uh,
25:48
Speaker 1: we won't read the whole quoll, but the excerpt here
25:51
Speaker 1: that's important is uh. He talked about how dangerous threats were,
25:55
Speaker 1: how messed up Simon was, and then says throughout the incident,
25:59
Speaker 1: Simon's behavior was of the highest order. One would not
26:02
Speaker 1: have expected a small cat to survive the blast from
26:05
Speaker 1: an explosion capable of making a whole over a foot
26:08
Speaker 1: in diameter in a steel plate. And then he says
26:12
Speaker 1: that Simon's presence was a decided factor in maintaining the
26:17
Speaker 1: high level of morale and he gets the Dicken Metal,
26:21
Speaker 1: He gets the highest order in the land in a
26:25
Speaker 1: unanimous decision. That's right. And I gotta say they they
26:28
Speaker 1: buried another player in this story here, Peggy the Dog.
26:32
Speaker 1: I want to know more about Peggy the dog and
26:33
Speaker 1: why Peggy didn't get more attention. Um, but where there's
26:37
Speaker 1: a cat's story today? So we'll leave that for another day.
26:40
Speaker 1: Maybe we'll do one about war dogs one of these days.
26:42
Speaker 1: But in August five, the AP broke the news that
26:46
Speaker 1: this award was going to be given to Simon. The
26:50
Speaker 1: headline was Amethysts cat gets dick in metal for catching
26:53
Speaker 1: rats um and the restless history. It was the only
26:58
Speaker 1: feeline ever to get a prestigious dicken metal and the
27:03
Speaker 1: only animal in the Royal Navy you ever earn this
27:06
Speaker 1: medal too, so double threat Simon. Yeah, and he like
27:10
Speaker 1: was literally got fan mail people writing fan letters to
27:13
Speaker 1: a cat. He would get like two hundred a day,
27:16
Speaker 1: along with toys and you know, treats and things like that.
27:20
Speaker 1: And a lieutenant by the name of Stewart Head got
27:24
Speaker 1: the honor or that the dubious honor, let's just say,
27:28
Speaker 1: for sorting through all of this crap and making sure
27:31
Speaker 1: the good stuff got to got to Simon and our
27:35
Speaker 1: one last note here. Unfortunately, Simon received this tremendous accolade posthumously. Uh.
27:44
Speaker 1: He passed away on November after only living two years,
27:51
Speaker 1: and maybe it was. I mean, the official cause was
27:55
Speaker 1: high fever and acute enteritis. His war wound, of course,
28:00
Speaker 1: had seriously weakened him again. Cards and letters arrived by
28:06
Speaker 1: the truckload his as we mentioned the very top of
28:10
Speaker 1: the episode. Uh. He is featured in Time magazine. He
28:14
Speaker 1: is in the obituary page of Time Magazine. He was
28:18
Speaker 1: buried at the pds A Animal Cemetery at Ilford, which
28:21
Speaker 1: is east of London, and especially made casket. Uh. There
28:25
Speaker 1: was a short ceremony. There was a marker place that
28:29
Speaker 1: was a wooden one originally it was later replaced with
28:32
Speaker 1: a stone monument. And eventually the Amethyst carries out a
28:38
Speaker 1: search for a new cat and they find another black
28:40
Speaker 1: and white tomcat. They name him Simon to unlike Simon
28:44
Speaker 1: one he comes from London, not Hong Kong. But if
28:48
Speaker 1: I could paraphrase one of the old cliches, I guess
28:51
Speaker 1: you never get the cat nip while you can still
28:53
Speaker 1: snarf it, you know, I can't. You can't get the
28:57
Speaker 1: flowers while you still smell him hunt. No, it's it's
29:01
Speaker 1: a great adaptation. I love it. Um. And it's interesting
29:04
Speaker 1: too because they specifically wanted to get a cat from
29:07
Speaker 1: the exact area of London Camden, which is like super
29:11
Speaker 1: hipster central these days. Uh. And they did that so
29:15
Speaker 1: that's where Simon two came from. Um wraps us up.
29:19
Speaker 1: I think for the story of Simon really really really
29:22
Speaker 1: was worthy of of his own episode and uh so
29:25
Speaker 1: sad actually, I think there really is kind of a
29:27
Speaker 1: touching and bitter sweet end of the story that he
29:29
Speaker 1: only lived two years. In those two years, they were
29:33
Speaker 1: not an easy two years, but he meant so much
29:35
Speaker 1: and stood for so much to so many people that
29:37
Speaker 1: I think it was a life well lived. Well done, Simon,
29:40
Speaker 1: You're a good cat. Thanks as always to Casey Pegram,
29:44
Speaker 1: Thanks to the one and only Max Williams. Uh and
29:48
Speaker 1: also no thanks to you man. We knocked out a
29:51
Speaker 1: two parter. Uh and except for this line that I'm
29:53
Speaker 1: about to say, we we didn't brag about how we
29:57
Speaker 1: how we actually were able to plan it except for
29:59
Speaker 1: just this one moment. Well we didn't have to because
30:02
Speaker 1: this was actually conceived as a two partner from the start,
30:06
Speaker 1: with the amazing help of our research associate Gabe Lucier,
30:10
Speaker 1: who also is a cat person. If I'm not mistaken,
30:12
Speaker 1: I believe that is correct. Thanks Everyone's Foster than Animals, Well,
30:16
Speaker 1: thanks to Christo Rosciotis, Thanks to Eve's Jeff Code and
30:19
Speaker 1: thanks to our very own favorite straight Jonathan Strickland, a
30:23
Speaker 1: k a. The Twister, who at this point is far
30:26
Speaker 1: overdue for an appearance. We'll see you next time, folks.
30:37
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I
30:39
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to
30:42
Speaker 1: your favorite shows.