As you know, I sometimes like to write children’s stories as well as cozy mysteries. Flag Day was June 14 so that put me in mind of this story about a cat, a ship, and a famous lawyer. To me, our American history is so wonderful that I want to pass it along to future generations. I want children to know and grown-ups to remember that we live in the best country in the world and should be proud of it. One way to couch facts is to put them in an interesting story and to add “what if?” So, what if a cat helped Francis Scott Key write The Star-Spangled Banner? Improbable and yet…
Star Spangled Cat
By Blanche Day Manos
“What?” I screeched. “Go to sea? Are you crazy?” Every one of my gray and white hairs stood straight up.
Reggie laughed. “You look like a bottle brush, old chap,” he said. “You’ll love the ocean!”
Nay! I decidedly would not love the ocean. I hate water. I also detest heights and loud noises. And mice.
I was but a small kitten when Reggie found me blown against his doorway on the night of the most horrific storm in England’s history. With my warm bed behind his stove and saucers of cream he set out for me, I was content. No more being blown around by wind and rain! I wanted to stay home and write poetry.
Did Reggie pay any attention to my wishes? He did not! One day he stuffed me into his knapsack, locked the door behind us, and headed for the harbor.
“England needs us, Tempest old chap,” he said. “Those snooty colonists must learn who’s boss so I’ve signed on to the HMS Tonnant. Every ship needs a cat to keep the rats down, you know. You can be that cat.”
Rats? This was the last straw! I popped my head out of his sack but he laughed and pushed me back in.
“Steady, old chap,” he said. “This war has lasted too long. It’s already 1814 and we’re on our way to America!”
And so it was that one day Reggie and I landed on the deck of the HMS Tonnant of the Royal Navy.
Reggie was an unusual young man. He talked to me; I talked to him and we understood each other.
“Just look at this ship, Temp-boy,” he said. “It has eighty guns! It’s old Cochrane’s flag ship and you and I are on it! We’ll whip those Yankees in no time!”
I have to add here that Reggie did not call Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane “Old Cochrane” to his face. In fact, he didn’t call him anything. His ranking was so far below the commander’s that Sir Cochrane hardly noticed Reggie.
Just as I feared, that creaky ship was over-run with nasty vermin! I worried myself silly hiding from the sneakiest, dirtiest most scaly-tailed varmints with the sharpest front teeth which ever infested a vessel. Pretty soon, the sailors noticed that the rats were taking over.
“Say, Reg,” one complained, “what’s wrong with your pet there? He ain’t doin’ his job.”
“It’s serious,” another seaman said. “These rats are in the flour, in the sugar and the other day I found one swimming in a barrel of molasses.”
The men cast dagger glances at me and I crept behind one of the ship’s eighty guns. Reduced to writing poetry in hiding, I was afraid of the sailors, the rats, and the rolling, tossing, very wet ocean.
“The sea is deep. I cannot sleep. Six rats I see. They may eat me,” I wrote in the little notebook I keep.
The Tonnant offered many hiding places. I crouched, unseen on most of the voyage, coming out only when the day was sunny and fair.
It was not sunny come September. We anchored off the coast of Baltimore, Maryland amid a thunderstorm. Rain fell for days and was still falling when I heard shouting.
“Ahoy there!” someone called.
“Ship coming alongside!” another yelled.
Hurrying over to Reggie, I pawed at his trousers.
“What’s happening?” I asked, craning my neck to get a look at a small single masted ship which was dropping anchor.
Reggie shook his head. “I heard some of the men mention a Mr. Key. He has a mighty fine looking sloop.”
“Hey there, Kitty, get out of the way!” a big, burly sailor growled.
I climbed up Reggie’s trousers and perched on his shoulder where I felt safe. Two newcomers disembarked from their ship and climbed the ladder to the deck of the Tonnant.
(to be continued)
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