Unsinkable Sam
Other name(s) | Oscar |
---|---|
Species | Cat |
Born | Before 1941 |
Died | 1955 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
Employer | |
Notable role | Ship's cat |
Years active | 1941–1955 |
Oscar (known by his nickname, Unsinkable Sam, or by the Germanized spelling of his name, Oskar) is a ship's cat who purportedly served during World War II with both the Kriegsmarine and the Royal Navy and survived the sinking of three ships.
History
The cat's original name is unknown. The name "Oscar" was given by the crew of the British destroyer HMS Cossack that rescued him from the sea following the sinking of the German battleship Bismarck. "Oscar" was derived from the International Code of Signals for the letter 'O', which is code for "Man Overboard"[1] (the German spelling, "Oskar", was sometimes used, since he was a German cat). [citation needed]
Bismarck
The black-and-white-patched cat was supposedly owned by an unknown crewman of the German battleship
HMS Cossack
The cat served on board
HMS Ark Royal
Now nicknamed "Unsinkable Sam", the cat was soon transferred to the
The loss of Ark Royal proved the end of Sam's shipborne career. He was transferred first to the offices of the Governor of Gibraltar and then sent back to the United Kingdom, where he saw out the remainder of the war living in a seaman's home in Belfast called the "Home for Sailors".[3]: 173 Sam died in 1955.[7] A pastel portrait of Sam by the artist Georgina Shaw-Baker (1860–1951)[8] is in the possession of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.[4]
Historicity
Some authorities question whether Oscar/Sam's biography might be a "sea story", because – for example – there are pictures of two different cats identified as Oscar/Sam.[citation needed]
There is no mention of this incident in Ludovic Kennedy's detailed account of the sinking of the Bismarck, suggesting that information later gleaned from sailors regarding the cat's true service was apocryphal. There were only a limited number of human survivors, as British ships had to abandon picking up survivors as there was believed to be a U-boat in the area.[9][10]
References
- ^ Butkus, Venantas (8 July 2011). "The fame of ships' cats". jura.diena.lt. Archived from the original on 11 October 2017. Retrieved 25 June 2017.
- ^
Stall, Sam (2007), 100 Cats Who Changed Civilization: History's Most Influential Felines, Quirk Books, pp. 57–58, ISBN 978-1-59474-163-0
- ^ OCLC 15197891.
- ^ a b THE SINKING OF HMS ARK ROYAL, archived from the original on 2021-05-02, retrieved 2021-05-02
- ^
Jameson, William (2004), Ark Royal: The Life of an Aircraft Carrier at War 1939-41, Periscope Publishing, p. 348, ISBN 1-904381-27-8
- ISBN 978-178035-480-4
- ISBN 1-59474-163-8
- ^ "Baker, Georgina Shaw, 1860–1951 | Art UK".
- OCLC 45828404.
- ^ Baker, Georgina Shaw. "Item #PAJ2744: Oscar, Cat From the German Battleship Bismarck – Private Collections of the National Maritime Museum" (Framed drawing in pastel, 785 × 610 mm). Royal Museums Greenwich. London, UK.
Some doubt has been cast on Oscar's origins on the Bismarck both for practical reasons, including there being no survivor account of him there, and because two contradictory photos exist.
Further reading
- Lewis, Val (2001). Ships' Cats in War and Peace. Shepperton: Nauticalia. ISBN 978-0-9530458-1-5.
- Vocelle, Laura (27 February 2015). "Cats in 20th Century History (Cats in War-Unsinkable Sam)". thegreatcat.org.