By Lyn Battle
TRIM TALES – the prequel Once upon a time… in 1797… The navigator stood on the wooden deck of HMS Reliance, legs braced for the Indian Ocean swell, spyglass to his eye as he scanned the horizon. They were midway through a voyage from South Africa to the new colony at Botany Bay, with a full load of cattle, horses, and sheep – including the first prized Merinos that would launch the Australian wool industry. In a corner lay the ship’s cat, sunning her new kindle of kittens. One of the newborns uncharacteristically scampered across the deck and playfully pawed the officer’s foot. “What’s this?” Matthew Flinders reached down and fondled the kitten’s ears, “We have another midshipman seeking promotion! Hello there Sir, you will go far in His Majesty’s Navy with a daring attitude like that!”
The kitten mewed and rubbed against his leg, accepting his new position with similar aplomb to Flinders, who was soon to be promoted from Midshipman to Lieutenant. The cheeky kitten quickly became a favourite among all the crew, who fed him titbits from
their table and played games with him on deck. He particularly impressed Flinders when he fell overboard then swam confidently towards the ship and latched onto a rope thrown by one of the crew, quickly clambering back on board. The well-read Flinders named him Trim after a much-loved character from the novel Tristram Shandy. “He grew to be one of the finest animals I ever saw,” Flinders records in his Biographical Tribute to the Memory of Trim. “His coat was jet black, with the exception of his four feet, which seemed to have been dipped in snow; and his under-lip, which rivalled them in whiteness; he had also a star on his breast… his tail was long, large and bushy, his head was small and round, whiskers long and graceful… his physiognomy bespoke intelligence and confidence…” Trim quickly learned to climb the rigging with the sailors and to assist the officers with their nautical observations. He was meticulous in his duties to protect the ship’s stores from damage by that unscrupulous stowaway – the rat. “No sooner was a cask SisterShip 46
