This week's collection of whimsical and curious stories will talk about a cat that (even by cat standards) proved to be very lucky.
Oscar - In 1942, when the German battleship Bismarck left her home port of Gotenhafen* in an attempt to raid trans-Atlantic convoys, it carried a crew of 2200 men and one cat. The Royal Navy was determined to stop Bismarck from severing the UK's vital supply lines and sent its fleet to hunt and sink her. After a fierce fight, Bismarck finally went down taking most of her crew with her. When the few survivors were picked out of the cold Atlantic, men aboard the British destroyer HMS Cossack spotted a cat desperately clinging onto floating wreckage. The lucky feline was plucked out of the water and christened "Oscar" (call sign for the letter "O" - naval code for "Man Overboard").
Oscar and crew (location and date unknown)
Oscar, having now switched sides from the Axis to the Allies, starting serving aboard Cossack as the ship's cat (something rather common in the Royal Navy). However, only five months later, Cossack herself was struck by a torpedo blowing off her bow and taking her to the bottom. Oscar, once again, was rescued and brought to nearby Gibraltar.
Unsinkable Sam - Following a short stint on land during which Oscar picked up a new nickname ("Unsinkable Sam"), he was assigned to the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. After less than a month at sea, this ship again met the business end of a torpedo and sank 30 miles off the coast of Gibraltar. Oscar was again found clinging to a piece of debris and when rescued was described as "angry but quite unharmed".
HMS Ark Royal after being torpedoed by U-81, 14 November 1942
The rescuing crew of HMS Lightning quickly transferred Oscar to HMS Legion (perhaps having grown suspicious of the cat's track record to find himself on doomed ships). However, by the time Lightning and Legion met their demise (1943 and 1942 respectively), Oscar had already been transferred to a land-based job hunting mice in the building of the Governor General of Gibraltar.
Oscar survived the war and finally passed away in 1955. A portrait of him can be found in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.
“Oscar, the Bismarck’s Cat” by Georgina Shaw-Baker
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*now Gdynia