Concerns about rats carrying disease aboard ships, chewing through rope lines, and stealing provisions were quite serious during World War II at the busy port of Baltimore. While the city’s prolific brown and gray rats, in theory, helped prevent outbreaks of bubonic plague by killing any of the rare but disease-carrying black rats which could jump off a ship, their eradication remained important.

“It is a good thing to get rid of rats in general,” Col. Richard P. Strong, Medical Corps, United States Army, and a graduate from Johns Hopkins Medical School, told The Baltimore Sun in a January 1943 story. “They carry endemic typhus.”

It was with those ship-dwelling rats (and mice) in mind, and wartime precautions being what they were, that the U.S. Coast Guard that same month issued an official port of Baltimore photo identification to a favored feline in service on its docks.

Herman the Cat, occupation: EXPERT MOUSER, age: 8 months, height: 15 inches, weight: 11 pounds, eyes: GREEN, color hair: GRAY, received his credentials on Jan. 12, 1943. A pawprint substituted for the standard right-hand index fingerprint. (See above photo.)

“His is one of a select group issued a United States Coast Guard identification card,” The Sun reported in its weekly service edition. “No longer can anyone stop the mascot at Pier 4, Pratt Street, as he goes about molesting rats.”

Herman’s induction even made the popular Paramount newsreels of the era, which were distributed to theaters around the country.

Seamen and cats have a bond that dates back as long as people have been sailing. Ship cats have been deployed on merchant, exploration, and naval vessels ever since the ancient Egyptians, who venerated the whiskered creatures and kept them as live-in pets and brought them aboard Nile River boats to catch rodents and birds nesting in waterside thickets. It was from this work, sailing into various ports of call, that the species began to spread around the globe.

In addition to providing inexpensive disease prevention and companionship, cats were favored by superstitious sailors, who believed they brought good luck. Others thought the sight of cats fighting before departure spelled doom. Early sailors learned that a cat’s behavior—the twitching of its tale when agitated, for example—could indicate a drop in air pressure and that perhaps rough weather was ahead. Sailors also adopted cats from foreign destinations as mascots and reminders of their pets at home.

During World War I, the U.S. Navy banned alcohol onboard its vessels, but still allowed cats to boost safety and morale. Photos of mascot cats (and dogs) on U.S. Naval vessels appear as far back as 1888—and up through World War II—and show them playing with Navy fighter pilots before battle missions.

Hard to believe, given cats’ notoriously independent dispositions, but “Bounce,” the feline mascot of the USS Chicago in 1905, was trained to stand attention on his hind legs and salute with a paw whenever “The Star-Spangled Banner” was performed, according to the 2022 illustrated hardcover, Cats in the Navy.

Current Navy policy does not officially ban cats on ships, “but strict policies enacted in the 1950s due to quarantine laws and political criticism mean that permission to have an animal on a ship is rarely granted,” according to the Military Officers Association of America. (Fighting budget cuts in the 1950s, Navy leadership was embarrassed by Congress, who said they squandered resources, pointing to its cat funerals.) “One of the rare occasions is when an aircraft carrier changes home ports and transports sailors’ cars, dependents, and pets to their new location.”

For Herman, getting his identification was no easy matter. Like many defense workers, including some of the foreign-born, he ran into issues over his birth certificate. Nonetheless, Cmdr. C.H. Abel, captain of the Port of Baltimore, signed off, noting regulations at the time said nothing regarding cats. In addition to pursuing vermin, entertainment was listed as one of Herman’s duties. Rare for his kind, he was said to allow everyone to pet him.

“That’s it,” said Chief Boatswain A. M. Talbot, who was in charge of Pier 4 in 1943. “He’s an ambassador of good will, a diplomat.”

Even though it’s called Port Discovery and is just a block from the Inner Harbor, Baltimore’s children’s museum has never had an exhibit about the Port of Baltimore.

That will change in the next two years if directors succeed in raising enough money to complete a $10.5 million renovation that will bring new features to the multi level attraction at 35 Market Place, including a centerpiece exhibit focusing on the port and the activity it brings to the city.

Planned for the middle of the museum, the as-yet unnamed “Port Exhibit” will include a giant interactive sculpture that will look like the prow of a cargo ship that broke through the museum’s east wall. Children will get a chance to climb aboard the SS Port Discovery, role-play as the ship’s captain and crew, and learn how goods come to Baltimore from around the world by way of the port.  

Why an exhibit on the port?

“We’re here. We’re in the Fish Market building. It’s part of the city’s history,” said Bryn Parchman, the museum’s president and CEO. “We’re all about learning and exploration. We thought it would be the perfect metaphor for everything that happens here.”

Hundreds of supporters gathered at the museum last week as leaders marked the museum’s 20th anniversary by announcing that they’re entering the final stage of a capital campaign, the first since the museum opened in December of 1998, and presenting a preview of the attractions planned to open starting next year. They also held a moment of silence to honor Baltimore County Executive and gubernatorial candidate Kevin Kamenetz, who died suddenly last Thursday and was an unabashed booster of the museum and the city.

Directors said the museum has already secured $7.5 million during the quiet phase of their “Playing Today, Leading Tomorrow” fund drive, including $1 million from the State of Maryland that was allocated by the General Assembly this spring.
They’re now seeking the remaining $3 million needed to begin the first phase of improvements, starting with last week’s fundraising event and the launch of a website that provides information about the campaign.

“Here at Port Discovery, we believe that every child should have access to a special place where they can stretch their imaginations,” Parchman told the crowd. “Help us to do that.”

Although the museum has made improvements and added exhibits over the years, leaders say, this will be its first comprehensive overhaul since the museum opened inside the city’s former Wholesale Fish Market, which dates from 1906, and is set to provide “immersive” attractions designed to promote play-based learning.

Parchman said the exhibit designs are based on the latest findings from research on how kids learn, surveys of what other children’s museums are doing, and focus group sessions held to determine what subjects Port Discovery should concentrate on.

A key goal for distinguishing Port Discovery from other children’s museums, she said, is to create “authentic” exhibits and experiences that tell visitors stories about Baltimore and Maryland.
The port exhibit fits that goal, she said, because it will give children a way to learn about the port’s role in the region’s economy, while developing math, science, social, and problem-solving skills.

A second major new attraction will be a four-story “SkyClimber” exhibit that will replace the KidWorks climbing structure currently in the center of the museum, but will be on the perimeter of the central space rather than in the middle of it. Framing the cargo ship replica, it’s designed to let kids go on a journey from under water up into the clouds.

Port Discovery was one of the first children’s museums to have a climbing feature, which has been copied by others around the country. Planners say removing the bulky KidWorks apparatus will help open up internal views of the museum that were blocked before because the older climbing structure was so dense.

Museum leaders are aiming to complete their fund drive in time to start construction of those two exhibits in early 2019 and complete them within several months.  They say the museum will remain open during construction, but sections may be off limits for periods of time while work is underway.

More attractions and amenities will be introduced over the next several years, including exhibits on space, art, and nature. Parchman said those subjects were identified through the focus groups and other research as areas worth emphasizing in the renovated museum. On the upper level, she said, will be an exhibit on the history of the Fish Market itself and the role it played in city commerce and as an anchor for Market Place.

The architect for the proposed improvements is Cambridge Seven Associates, lead designer of the 1981 Pier 3 building for the National Aquarium in Baltimore and its Australia-themed addition. Roto Studio of Dublin, Ohio, is the exhibit designer and fabricator.

“We wanted to offer experiences that they couldn’t get anyplace else and that also have a Baltimore connection,” she said. “We felt very strongly about providing a sense of place.”