LONDON - A cat stowed away in a crate of crockery on a container ship and travelled 6,000 miles (9,600 kilometres) from China to Britain, living on cardboard and condensation.

Nicknamed Chairman Miaow, the white tabby cat crawled into the crate before it was loaded onto the container ship bound for Britain, the Daily Telegraph said Friday.

It survived for 26 days on a diet of cardboard and condensation to arrive as an "illegal immigrant" in the county of Nottinghamshire, central England.

Staff at crockery suppliers Tabletop, in the town of Kirby-on-Ashfield, discovered the cat, which was then vaccinated and sent to a quarantine centre in the nearby town of Cottam.

"She loves to be petted and fussed over. I'm not surprised after all that time alone in the box," the crockery supply centre's manager Wendy Reeves told the paper.