simon was the ship's cat of hms "amethyst" during the yangtze incident in 1949, during the chinese civil war. during the yangtze incident, the hms "amethyst" was attacked and was trapped on the yangtze river for months. the ship and its crew were badly hurt in the attacks on the ship. these attacks killed 25 of "amethyst"’s crew, including the commanding officer. simon was also hurt in the attacks, but soon he recovered. he started killing rats again, which was very important since the rodents had been destroying the ship. simon also did the important job of keeping up the crew's spirits.