page_title: Mrs Chippy
section_title: Cultural references
hierarchical_section_title: Mrs Chippy / Cultural references
context_page_description: Mrs Chippy was a male ship's cat who accompanied Sir Ernest Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917.
context_section_description: A novel by  Caroline Alexander, Mrs. Chippy's Last Expedition : The Remarkable Journal of Shackleton's Polar-Bound Cat, was published by  Bloomsbury in 1997. The book provides an account of Shackleton's Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition, covering the period 15 January 1914 to 29 October 1915, in the form of a journal written from a cat’s point of view, supposedly by Mrs Chippy. The final entry recounts Shackleton instructing his crew, now camped on the ice pack following the destruction of their ship, that to ensure their survival "Anything that cannot pull its weight or is not useful to the Expedition must be put down". The book ends poignantly with Mrs Chippy (clearly unaware of the implications of Shackleton's order) relaxing in a tent, reminiscing over past adventures and, after being given a treat of a bowl of sardines, looking forward to assisting with the rest of the expedition.
  Mrs Chippy was portrayed in the 2002 Channel 4 mini-series  Shackleton, starring Kenneth Branagh, with the credits stating that the part was played by 'Mac'.
  The painting Mrs Chippy by Wolf Howard shows the cat "about to be shot", while in the background Endurance is depicted trapped in the ice and its crew can be seen launching a small open boat on a rescue mission. The painting was shown in The Stuckists Punk Victorian exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery during the 2004 Liverpool Biennial.
  An opera for primary school children, Shackleton's Cat by Russell Hepplewhite, was commissioned by the English Touring Opera in 2015.
caption: Wolf Howard, Mrs Chippy
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