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:
“Some spring the white man came, built him a house, and made a clearing here, letting in the sun, dried up a farm, piled up the old gray stones in fences, cut down the pines around his dwelling, planted orchard seeds brought from the old country, and persuaded the civil apple-tree to blossom next to the wild pine and the juniper, shedding its perfume in the wilderness. Their old stocks still remain.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“For I will consider my Cat Jeoffry.
For he is the servant of the Living God, duly and daily serving him.
For at the first glance of the glory of God in the East he worships
in his way.
For is this done by wreathing his body seven times round with
elegant quickness.”
—Christopher Smart (1722–1771)