There are many legendary characters of the sea. Between them, believe it or not, a cat. Unsinkable Sam, aka Oskar. Legend has it that he was originally aboard the German battleship Bismarck, with which the Nazis hoped to dominate the battles at sea.
On May 18, 1941, Bismarck embarked on his first mission, but 9 days later he would be sunk by the Allies. 115 people survived out of the 2,100 crew, as well as the cat. Which would be rescued from the wreck by British sailors from the destroyer HMS Cossack. And they baptized her Oskar.
After a few months, however, the ship was hit by the torpedoes of a German submarine, which killed 159 crew members. But not the Oscar.
On 24 October 1941, while escorting convoy HG-75 from Gibraltar to Liverpool, HMS Cossack was torpedoed by the German submarine U-563. 159 crew members died, but the kitten was among those who survived and ended up on the destroyer HMS Legion.
Soon after, Oskar was transferred to the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal, which had contributed substantially to the sinking of Bismarck. There he received the name “Unsinkable Sam”.
This ship did not survive him either. On November 14, 1941, returning from Malta, it was torpedoed by the German submarine U-81. Attempts to tow the sinking ship proved futile, and HMS Ark Royal sank 30 miles east of Gibraltar. However, all the sailors and airmen, and along with them and Sam, were saved.
The sinking of the Ark Royal ended Sam’s career at sea. Sam lived for a time in the Office of the Governor-General of Gibraltar, but was soon sent to Britain, the end of the war finding him in Belfast, as a naval veteran, until 1955, when he died.
To what extent the story is entirely real, it is difficult to say. The fact is that the legend circulates, and the painting of the hero cat, made by the artist Georgina Shaw-Baker, is now preserved in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.
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