Bismarck



The tale goes as follows . . . The German battleship was sunk on 27 May 1941. Of more than 2200 men on board, only 116 survived, together with Oscar, the ship's cat (or Oskar, to use the German spelling). He was picked up by the British destroyer HMS Cossack, but she too was torpedoed a few months later, on 24 October, with the loss of 159 lives. Attempts to rescue the ship failed, and she was abandoned and sank two days later. Oscar survived again, was taken to Gibraltar, and was then taken on by HMS Ark Royal. His stay there was even shorter, as the aircraft carrier was torpedoed by U-81 on 13 November, eventually capsizing and sinking only 30 miles (50 km) from Gibraltar. Yet again Oscar was lucky  but there were no more ships for him, as it was decided that his presence was certainly not lucky! By now known as Unsinkable Sam, this great survivor among cats stayed as mouse-catcher in the Governor General of Gibraltar's office buildings until he was taken by a brave ship to Belfast, in Northern Ireland (although some reports say Plymouth). There he lived until his death in 1955, at the Home for Sailors. A portrait of him has a place of honour in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, on the River Thames near London. . . . BUT, did Oscar really exist? Some serious researchers of the matter believe that the tale of Oscar/Sam, as given above, while it makes a marvellous story, is what would probably today be called an 'urban myth', and is highly unlikely to have happened in that way, or even at all. The reasons are several: (1)  None of the survivors from Bismarck remembers there being such a cat on the ship  not even the Baron, who would have been in its likely home of the wardroom.

 None of the survivors from remembers there being such a cat on the ship  not even the Baron, who would have been in its likely home of the wardroom. (2)  There is no photographic or documentary evidence of a cat on board (and there are plenty of surviving photos of and from Bismarck ).

 There is no photographic or documentary evidence of a cat on board (and there are plenty of surviving photos of and from ). (3)  A small animal like a cat in the sea could not have reached a rescue ship. Both of the rescue ships present (neither of which was the Cossack , incidentally) were high-sided vessels, and Bismarck 's survivors, covered in oil, had to climb ropes in heavy seas to reach safety  so how could an extremely wet cat have got on board? A sailor would not have been able to reach down and pick it up, either. And no cat could have survived for long, drenched through and very cold, to be picked up later.

 A small animal like a cat in the sea could not have reached a rescue ship. Both of the rescue ships present (neither of which was the , incidentally) were high-sided vessels, and 's survivors, covered in oil, had to climb ropes in heavy seas to reach safety  so how could an extremely wet cat have got on board? A sailor would not have been able to reach down and pick it up, either. And no cat could have survived for long, drenched through and very cold, to be picked up later. (4)  Human survival instincts make it extremely unlikely that any sailor, German or British, as much as they liked their mascots, would have rescued an animal under the very poor conditions at the time, when all efforts were being concentrated on saving human lives.

 Human survival instincts make it extremely unlikely that any sailor, German or British, as much as they liked their mascots, would have rescued an animal under the very poor conditions at the time, when all efforts were being concentrated on saving human lives. (5)  The Ark Royal part of the tale sounds similarly unlikely. On that occasion the ship sank very slowly; there was time to evacuate all survivors in an orderly way, and no one had to be rescued from wreckage. If there had been a cat alive, unless it hid itself very well, it would not have had to be in the water at all.

 The part of the tale sounds similarly unlikely. On that occasion the ship sank very slowly; there was time to evacuate all survivors in an orderly way, and no one had to be rescued from wreckage. If there had been a cat alive, unless it hid itself very well, it would not have had to be in the water at all. (6)  Lastly, there seem to be two different versions of Oscar/Sam! The photo above, although copied a number of times, definitely shows a striped tabby. However, there's a painting in the British National Maritime Museum, supposedly of Oscar, that shows a 'tuxedo' (black-and-white) cat. They cannot both be correct  but is either of them? Did Oscar/Sam ever exist, or was he the figment of someone's fertile imagination? (Many thanks to Frank Allen of the HMS Hood Association for allowing us to publish his thoughts above, in 2008.) More recently we were interested to read elsewhere that the secretary of the HMS Cossack Association, while having little doubt that A ship's cat named Oscar probably existed, also debunked the tale.)

