Sam was a black and white patched cat, supposedly owned by an unknown crewman of the German battleship Bismarck.
The Bismark, which with her sister ship Tirpitz was the largest battleship ever built by Germany for the second World War. In fact, it only ever took part in one action before when in 1941 it was sunk by British war ships. This is the interesting bit, Sam was discovered many hours later floating on a piece of wood, by the crew of the HMS Cossack, which was part of the attacking flotilla. They took him aboard and they gave him the name, Oscar! Why you may ask, why? Well they gave him the name “Oscar” from the international Code of Signals. As I am sure you know in the International Code of Signals the letter ‘O’ is the code for “Man Overboard”, at the time they didn’t know how right they were.
Now, remember there was a war on, and, yes, unfortunately, a little later, you guessed it, the Cossack was hit by a torpedo. 159 of the crew were killed. But, yes, again, Oscar survived! Once more he was rescued along with the surviving crew. This is why they gave him the nick name “Unsinkable Sam.”
He now moved on to become the ship’s cat on the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. You would have thought that this time he would be lucky and see out the war. But he didn’t as life on a naval ship in World War II was risky and inevitably a Nazi U-boat’s torpedo did it for the HMS Ark Royal.
Fear not, Oscar successfully survived again!
This time it was decided that they should probably retire him from the navy. He was therefore retired to a seaman’s home in Belfast, where he happily lived on dry land for a further 14 years dying peacefully in 1955.
Unsinkable Sam served on both sided during World War II as well as surviving the sinking of three ships!
Some cat!
Isn’t History Fun?
10 questions to discuss:
- What type of ship was the Bismarck, and what significant event happened to it in 1941?
- How did Sam, the cat, manage to survive the sinking of the Bismarck?
- Why was Sam initially named “Oscar” by the crew of the HMS Cossack?
- How did Sam survive a second shipwreck when the HMS Cossack was sunk by a torpedo?
- Why did Sam earn the nickname “Unsinkable Sam”?
- What other ship did Sam become the mascot of after leaving the HMS Cossack?
- Why was Sam finally retired from naval service despite surviving three shipwrecks?
- Where did Sam spend his retirement years and how long did he live after leaving the navy?
- Do you think Sam’s story can be considered pure luck, or do you think there might be other factors contributing to his remarkable survival?
- Based on Sam’s experiences, what message can we learn about resilience and adapting to challenges?
To learn more about this incredible cat:
© Tony Dalton