Unsinkable Sam aka Oskar was a Black-and-White Patched Tuxedo Ship’s Cat that survived the sinking of three capital ships in 1941 during World War II
The cat known as Unsinkable Sam began his naval career serving on the German Battleship Bismarck. Cats have throughout human maritime history been brought aboard vessels mostly in order to control rats. His origin or owner are lost to history, but it was suspected that the cat was born somewhere on the North Sea coast of Germany. He was conscripted by the Kreigmarine by an unknown crew member of the Bismarck when the ship set sail on its maiden voyage on May 19th 1941. The German battleship was the most powerful ship in the German Navy, if not the entire world at the time, and a symbol of strength for the Nazi regime. The Bismarck’s mission was to harass the British Royal Navy and to intercept ships from Canada and the United States that were bring much needed supplies to Britain. The feline was on duty, hunting rodents, in the bowels of the Bismarck when the German Battleship encountered and sank the HMS Hood on May 24th 1941. Enraged by the loss of the Hood, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill ordered the Admiralty to put all effort needed to sink the Bismarck. A few days later on May 27th, as the Bismarck was headed to Vichy-France for repairs; the British engaged the German ship in the open North Atlantic Ocean. After a fierce battle the Bismarck was severely damaged and most of the crew, included the Captain, were killed; its remaining officers ordered, though it was already in the process of sinking, the ship to be scuttled. One of the Ship’s Cats sensing the dire situation he was in, abandoned his duty, and tried to get off the doomed ship. Only 115 sailors of the almost 2,300 crew aboard the Bismarck survived the sinking. The survivors were rescued by various British ships, including an angry, wet, but otherwise quite unharmed certain black-and-white patched tuxedo cat found clinging to a piece of debris. The cat was brought aboard the destroyer HMS Cossack where the British crew would name him Oskar due to his German heritage.
Oskar immediately switched sides and renounced his Nazi past. He loyally served aboard the British destroyer, still hunting for rats, for almost the rest of 1941. On October 23rd 1941, however, the Cossack, while escorting a convoy from Gibraltar to Great Britain, was attacked by a German U-boat. The U-boat fired a single torpedo at the British ship; disabling the destroyer The Cossack, badly damaged and unable to stay afloat on her own, was towed by a tug toward Gibraltar. Unfortunately in increment weather on the way to safe harbor, the tow cable broke and the HMS Cossack sank, with a loss of 159 crewmen, off the coast of Gibraltar. Among the survivors was the ship’s cat Oskar; angry, wet, but otherwise quite unharmed . Immediately after the sinking of the Cossack, he was reassigned to the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal where he gained the moniker: Unsinkable Sam
Oskar’s time aboard the Ark Royal was almost as short as his stint aboard the Bismarck. The HMS Ark Royal was the premier aircraft carrier of the Royal Navy. She was a part of almost all the major naval engagements of the early war, including a role in the sinking of the Bismarck. In November of 1941 she was assigned to the Mediterranean Sea in order to ferry aircraft from Gibraltar to the island of Malta. Under siege from German and Italian forces, the planes were desperately needed on Malta to fend off the Axis attack. On the way back to Gibraltar, The Ark Royal and its escorts were warned of U-boat activity off the Spanish Coast, and remained vigilant during the mission. On November 13 1941 the sonar operator on one of the destroyer escort heard an unidentified sound in the water and assumed it was a propeller of another ship. The sound, however, was a torpedo fired from a German U-boat heading for the British convoy. The torpedo hit the Ark Royal midship, and the explosion killed a member of her crew. The Captain ordered the aircraft carrier to a full stop, but the strike had knocked out communications aboard the ship, and the order was not quickly received by the engine crew. The continued motion of the ship enlarged the otherwise superficial hole in the hull, and the Ark Royal listed hard to port as she began taking on water. The Captain fearing that the ship would sink fast with a tremendous loss of life, immediately ordered the crew to abandon ship. The other ship in the convoy began to rescue crew members with all haste, and only one sailor, killed in the initial explosion, lost his life as the HMS Ark Royal sank off the coast of Spain. Among the survivors, found clinging to a plank in the water, was an angry, wet, but otherwise quite unharmed Oskar the cat.
Unsinkable Sam was treated as a hero by the Royal Navy and the British wartime press. But Oskar, not wanting to tempt fate once again after using up three of his nine lives, decided that life at sea was not for him. He was transferred to the office of the Governor of Gibraltar, before relocating to the United Kingdom for the rest of the war. He retired to a seaman’s home called the ‘Home for Sailors’ in Belfast, Northern Ireland where he lived until he passed away peacefully in 1955; content, dry, and otherwise quite unharmed.
