SAM: Pets are making the news quite often these days, so we thought we’d share a story of one who is remembered in history.
Unsinkable Sam was a tuxedo cat in World War II who started off on Nazi Germany’s Bismarck, but was rescued by the British destroyer HMS Cossack after the sinking of the German ship on May 18, 1941. He had been found floating on a board, was picked up and named Oscar — the letter “O” being used to signal “man overboard.”
The furry little feline served on the Cossack until Oct. 24, 1941, when that ship was severely damaged by a torpedo from a German U-boat. The crew was transferred to the HMS Legion, and an attempt was made to tow the Cossack to Gibraltar. However, the Cossack sank.
Oscar survived this brush with mortality — the second of his nine lives? — and went to shore in Gibraltar.
He had somewhat of a reputation by this point, and became known as Unsinkable Sam. He was transferred to the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal — which had been involved in the battle that sank the Bismarck months earlier. However, the Ark Royal was torpedoed on Nov. 14, 1941.
As the aircraft carrier was being towed to Gibraltar, it, too, sank. Sam was again found clinging to a floating plank and rescued by a motor launch. He was described as “angry but quite unharmed.”
Transferred to the HMS Lightning, Sam was taken to the offices of the governor of Gibraltar, where he was retired from sea duty. He was sent to the United Kingdom, living out his days in a seaman’s home in Belfast called “The Home for Sailors,” where he died in 1955.
