The Wild Cat is a green two-masted schooner that Captain Flint, the Swallows, the Amazons and Peter Duck sail to the West Indies in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons book Peter Duck. She also appears in the opening chapters of Missee Lee. The ship would have been about 50 ft (15 m) long. In the book and the illustrations there is no mention of a head. This is typical of Arthur Ransome's reticence on the issue.
The name is taken from Wild Cat Island which features in all the books set in the Lake District. She was converted from a Baltic trading schooner by decking over the hold to make a saloon with a long skylight and four double cabins opening into it. The deckhouse has a couple of bunks for Captain Flint and Peter Duck.
In Ransome's book Missee Lee, the ship was burned to the waterline and sinks when Gibber, Roger's monkey, put a lighted cigar in the fuel (petrol) holding tank. In Peter Duck, the Swallow is aboard and is used as one of the ship's boats. In Missee Lee, both the Swallow and Amazon are aboard and used as lifeboats when she sinks.
Famous quotes containing the words wild and/or cat:
“A bestial and violent man will go so far as to kill because he is under the influence of drink, exasperated, or driven by rage and alcohol. He is paltry. He does not know the pleasure of killing, the charity of bestowing death like a caress, of linking it with the play of the noble wild beasts: every cat, every tiger, embraces its prey and licks it even while it destroys it.”
—Colette [Sidonie Gabrielle Colette] (1873–1954)
“It doesn’t matter whether a cat is black or white; as long at it can catch mice, it’s a good cat.”
—Chinese proverb.