It's one of the most charming stories of World War II. A cat named Oscar is said to have survived the sinking of a German battleship, then a British destroyer, then a British aircraft carrier, all in 1941. Sailors supposedly nicknamed him Unsinkable Sam.
Here's the honest version. A cat named Oscar really was reported rescued after the British carrier HMS Ark Royal sank in November 1941, and newspapers printed his photo. But there's no firm evidence linking him to the earlier two sinkings. Historians suspect much of his backstory may be a classic sailor's yarn.
The Legend, as It's Usually Told
In the popular version, the cat began life aboard the German battleship Bismarck. When Bismarck was sunk in May 1941, only 115 of her crew of more than 2,100 survived. Hours later, the story goes, a cat was found floating on a board and picked up by the British destroyer HMS Cossack, whose crew named him Oscar.
Then, in October 1941, Cossack was hit by a German submarine's torpedo. The blast tore off about a third of the front of the ship and killed 159 of the crew, and she later sank west of Gibraltar. The cat supposedly survived again and was moved to the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. Weeks later, Ark Royal was torpedoed too. The cat was found clinging to a floating plank, described as “angry but quite unharmed.”
What the Newspapers Actually Said
Ark Royal sank on November 14, 1941, not far from Gibraltar. Because she went down slowly, all but one of the crew were saved. Early reports said most of the ship's six cats survived too, though her canaries did not.
On November 18, a Reuters story claimed a black cat had been found floating on a plank and identified him as Oscar, a former pet of the Bismarck. In that early telling, he had only been transferred from Cossack, not sunk with it. The detail that he was aboard Cossack when she went down was added in a later newspaper report.
Why Historians Have Doubts
Several things don't add up. Photos exist of two different cats, both identified as Oscar or Sam. Accounts even disagree about how many cats were on Ark Royal, with one reporter describing a ginger cat that was “one of dozens.”
There's also no mention of a cat in Ludovic Kennedy's detailed account of Bismarck's sinking. So while Ark Royal's crew apparently claimed their Oscar had come from Bismarck, the earlier chapters of his life can't be confirmed.
Where Oscar Ended Up
After Ark Royal, Oscar's seagoing days were over. He reportedly spent time at the Governor of Gibraltar's offices and was later looked after at a sailors' home in Northern Ireland. In 1942, he was even featured on an Armed Forces Radio program, where, as one report put it, he “made himself heard to millions of listeners.”
He died in 1955. A pastel portrait of him by artist Georgina Shaw-Baker belongs to the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England.
So did one cat really outlast three warships? Probably not. But a scruffy survivor pulled from the sea after Ark Royal went down, who went on to become a wartime celebrity, is still a pretty wonderful story. Sometimes the legend and the truth both deserve a saucer of milk.
