“No disaster story is quite complete without the rescue of at least one cat.”–Ithaca Journal, reporting on the sinking of the S.S. Vestris, November 15, 1928
On November 10, 1928, just around 4 p.m., the S.S. Vestris of the Lamport and Holt Line left her pier on the East River in Brooklyn. The steam ocean liner, which transported passengers from New York to South America and Liverpool, was bound for the Rio de la Plata with 128 human passengers, 198 crew members, and one feline mascot.
Nearly one-third of the people on board would not survive the trip. The cat would make it.
