The worst story about cats that you’ll ever hear
For episode 5 of Containers, I was able to board an American-flagged ship docked at the Port of Oakland. It was a fascinating experience meeting the sailors and exploring the ship with the permission of the Captain, Tony Mociun. You can hear the whole episode here.
But one story got cut that I present for you here. Let’s be real. It’s not a nice story. In fact, it’s pretty horrifying. But I think it gives you a sense that there is very little room for sentimentality out on the high seas.
The steward—the —of the ship told me the story. He’s a huge guy: 6'7" maybe 350 pounds. And he used to be a professional basketball player. His voice was so low that it mixed with the rumble of the ship itself. His name is Duane.
He started his career on cruise ships, then went back to school, learned how to cook, and became a steward. The first freighter he sailed on was a military supply vessel during the first Gulf War, operation Desert Storm. “It was an old stickship,” he told me, “They have the old booms. That ship was about 50 years old at the time. It had a pool.”
While on the way, they had a problem with the water tank and got waylaid in Dubai for some weeks, and that’s where they got into trouble with some local wildlife.
https://soundcloud.com/alexismadrigal/the-worst-cat-story-youll-ever-hear
They hauled the big garbage dumpsters and put them on the deck, so that we wouldn’t have to walk down and throw the trash in the garbage cans. I don’t know why they did this. But anyway, as soon as we then sail, we sail from there, and all of a sudden, you’re hearing meow meoooow, and all these feral cats had climbed up the gangway and smelled that garbage. So we sailed with about 20 cats.
I figured that perhaps the crew had adopted them. Maybe dressed them up in little sailor outfits. But this isn’t the Internet.
Duane: So the sailors went around with shovels for fucking 3 days killing these poor cats and throwing them over the side with a shovel.
That’s it. That’s the end of the story.
