Tag: joseph mulholland

On April 10, 1912, at 12:00 p.m., Titanic set off from Southampton.

And, since people love a good conspiracy theory, there are countless rumors of passengers and crew experiencing a sense of foreboding, some even going so far as to cancel their passage.

And one of those was a tabby cat named Jenny.

Jenny was a cat and Titanic's official mouser, transferred from the RMS Olympic to its new sister Titanic, to stymie the inevitable vermin population on board.

As any nautically inclined individuals will attest, cats were common on board sailing vessels of all sorts. They were pest control agents and predictors of bad weather. They were companions. And, of course, they were supposed to bring good luck.

In short, ship cats were beloved. And there are many stories of prescient ship cats throughout the years.

Jenny, Titanic's cat, was no exception.

About a week prior to Titanic's departure, Jenny birthed a litter.

Jenny and her babies were tended to and fed scraps from the kitchens by a crewmember named Jim Mulholland, who boarded in Belfast for the Delivery Run to Southampton.

Stewardess and Woman-Famous-For-Surviving-Disasters-On-All-Three-Doomed-Olympic-Class-Vessels, Violet Jessop, wrote in her memoirs that Jenny "laid her family near Jim, the scullion, whose approval she always sought and who always gave her warm devotion."

Jim had been considering working through Titanic's maiden voyage when shortly after docking at Southampton, Jim saw Jenny trot down the gangplank with her kitten in her mouth. Jenny then returned to the galley and retrieved the others, one by one, until all were on the quay and off the Titanic.

Jim watched until Jenny had disappeared with her babies.

He saw her departure as an omen and followed her lead, turning down the trip and extra pay and disembarking before Titanic set sail.

This story was first reported in the Irish News Global Edition.