Page 37 - Chiron Calling Autum 2021/Spring 2022

sensation. According to the Coast Guard magazine, he was the canine incarnation of a true sailor. Sinbad was a salty sailor he would run amok in ports or caused trouble in foreign countries. During his seven years aboard Campbell, Sinbad was awarded six medals, including the American Defence Service Medal and the World War II Victory Medal. After his death, a granite monument was erected in his honour
at Barnegat Light, New Jersey. Pet owning was not in conflict with the rugged masculine self-
image of sailors as one-story reveals. Mrs. Chippy, a tiger-striped tabby taken on board the Norwegian expedition ship Endurance by Harry McNish, the boat’s carpenter (whose was nicknamed “Chippy,”
as many shipwrights were). Mrs. Chippy—who kept the name even after turning out to be male— walked, to the crew’s amazement, along the ship’s inch-wide rails
in even the roughest of seas.
When Endurance was famously trapped in pack ice in Antarctica in 1915, and captain Ernest Shackleton decided to abandon ship, he also resolved to shoot the “weaklings” on board—including several sled dogs and Mrs. Chippy. He wrote in his journal:
“This afternoon Sallie’s three youngest pups, Sue’s Sirius, and Mrs. Chippy, the carpenter’s cat, have to be shot. We could not undertake the maintenance of weaklings under the new conditions”.
Harry McNish the ships carpenter seemed to feel the loss of their friends rather badly and reportedly never forgave Shackleton. In 2004, the New Zealad Antarctic Society built a life-size bronze statue of Mrs. Chippy (also featured on
local stamps) on McNish’s grave in Wellington.
Today many countries no longer allow animals to work officially
on ships, but, that does not stop sailors from picking up stray cats in ports. The long-standing tradition of maritime pets remains alive and well.
Rocky Creek
Animal Memorial
– Australia
Santina Lizzio, representative of AWAMO, at the unveiling of plaques at Rocky Creek for animals of war with John Hardy from the RSL. Rocky Creek is in North Queensland. During World War
II, the Tablelands area became the largest military base in Australia with camps at Tinaroo, Kairi, Atherton, Wongabel, Herberton, Wondecla, Ravenshoe and Mount Garnet. Rocky Creek was the site of the largest military hospital in the Southern Hemisphere — a 3000 bed hospital which treated over 60,000 patients from 1943 to 1945.
The first plaques dedicated in the park occurred on Victory in the Pacific (VP) Day in 1995. A special wall of remembrance was erected in 2009.
Every year in August, on the Sunday closest to VP Day 15 August, returned soldiers, their families and descendants gather to remember Victory in the Pacific and to take part in a dedication and unveiling ceremony. To commemorate 76 years since the end of WWII in the Pacific the VP Day Memorial Service will be held at 10am Sunday 15 August 2021. This year War animals were remembered. Especially the messenger pigeons and transport mules.
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