Trim

Trim was a black tomcat born aboard HMS Reliance in 1799 during the voyage from England to Botany Bay. The kitten was adopted by navigator Matthew Flinders, who described him in such glowing terms — 'the best and most illustrious of his race' — that the resulting biographical sketch is now considered one of the finest pieces of cat literature in the English language. Trim accompanied Flinders on the first circumnavigation of Australia aboard HMS Investigator between 1801 and 1803, making him almost certainly the first cat to circumnavigate the continent. He was famously fond of climbing rigging and fishing live fish from the sea by hooking them with his paw. When Flinders' ship was forced to put in at French-controlled Île de France (now Mauritius) on the homeward journey, Flinders was arrested as a suspected spy and held for over six years. During Flinders' captivity, Trim mysteriously disappeared on Mauritius in 1804 — Flinders believed he had been stolen and eaten by a hungry slave. In his grief, Flinders wrote a 5,000-word tribute to Trim that begins 'To the memory of Trim, the best and most illustrious of his race, the most affectionate of friends, faithful of servants, and best of creatures.' Bronze statues of Trim sit on the window sill of the Mitchell Library in Sydney and at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, both beneath statues of Flinders himself.