"Unsinkable Sam Unsinkable Sam (also known as Oskar or Oscar) is the nickname of a real or fictitious cat, reportedly in service as a ship's cat during World War II both in the Kriegsmarine and the Royal Navy, surviving the sinking of three ships in total. The cat's original name is unknown. The name ""Oscar"" was given by the crew of the British destroyer HMS ""Cossack"" that rescued him from the sea following the sinking of the German battleship ""Bismarck"". ""Oscar"" was derived from the International Code of Signals for the letter 'O', which is code for ""Man Overboard"" (the"
"Australia. He remained with Flinders until death. He has been the subject of a number of works of literature, and statues have been placed in his honour, including one that sits on a window sill at the State Library of New South Wales in Sydney. Previously named Oscar, he was the ship's cat of the German battleship ""Bismarck"". When she was sunk on 27 May 1941, only 116 out of a crew of over 2,200 survived. Oscar was picked up by the destroyer HMS ""Cossack"" (one of the ships responsible for destroying ""Bismarck""). ""Cossack"" herself was torpedoed and sunk a"
"German spelling, ""Oskar"", was sometimes used since he was a ""German"" cat). The black and white patched cat was supposedly owned by an unknown crewman of the German battleship ""Bismarck"" and was on board the ship on 18 May 1941 when she set sail on Operation ""Rheinübung"" (German for Rhine Exercise), ""Bismarck""'s only mission. ""Bismarck"" was sunk after a fierce sea-battle on 27 May, from which only 115 from her crew of over 2,100 survived. Hours later, Oscar was found floating on a board and picked from the water by the British destroyer HMS ""Cossack"". Unaware of what his name"
"Animals aboard the RMS Titanic There were many animals aboard the RMS ""Titanic"" during her disastrous maiden voyage, which ended with the ship sinking on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg. They included dogs, cats, chickens, other birds and an unknown number of rats. Twelve dogs were on the Titanic but only three survived, and the rest of the animals perished in the disaster. The ship had her own official cat named Jenny, who was kept aboard ""Titanic"" as a mascot and also worked to keep down the ship's population of rats and mice. Transferred over from ""Titanic""s"
"sunk in 1942, and ""Lightning"" in 1943. The loss of ""Ark Royal"" proved the end of Sam's shipborne career. He was transferred first to the offices of the Governor of Gibraltar and then sent back to the United Kingdom, where he saw out the remainder of the war living in a seaman's home in Belfast called the ""Home for Sailors"". Sam died in 1955. A pastel portrait of Sam (titled ""Oscar, the Bismarck's Cat"") by the artist Georgina Shaw-Baker is in the possession of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Some authorities question whether Oskar/Sam's biography might be a ""sea"
"abandoned. On 27 October, a day after the tow was slipped, ""Cossack"" sank to the west of Gibraltar. The initial explosion had blown off one third of the forward section of the ship, killing 159 of the crew, but Oscar survived this too and was brought to the shore establishment in Gibraltar. Now nicknamed ""Unsinkable Sam"", the cat was soon transferred to the aircraft carrier , which coincidentally had been instrumental in the destruction of ""Bismarck"" (along with ""Cossack""). However, Sam was to find no more luck there, and when returning from Malta on 14 November 1941 this ship too"
"valued by Anderson at $50. Only three out of twelve dogs survived the sinking. Animals aboard the RMS Titanic There were many animals aboard the RMS ""Titanic"" during her disastrous maiden voyage, which ended with the ship sinking on 15 April 1912 after colliding with an iceberg. They included dogs, cats, chickens, other birds and an unknown number of rats. Twelve dogs were on the Titanic but only three survived, and the rest of the animals perished in the disaster. The ship had her own official cat named Jenny, who was kept aboard ""Titanic"" as a mascot and also worked"
"story"", because – for example – there are pictures of two different cats identified as Oskar/Sam. The sinking of ""Bismarck"" and rescue of a limited number of survivors took place in desperate conditions; British ships were ordered not to stop as there was believed to be a U-boat in the area, and many survivors were left to die of exposure. Pointedly, there is no mention of this incident in Ludovic Kennedy's detailed account of the sinking, suggesting that information later gleaned from sailors regarding the cat's true service were apocryphal. Unsinkable Sam Unsinkable Sam (also known as Oskar or Oscar)"
"had been on ""Bismarck"", the crew of ""Cossack"" named their new mascot ""Oscar"". The cat served on board ""Cossack"" for the next few months as the ship carried out convoy escort duties in the Mediterranean Sea and north Atlantic Ocean. On 24 October 1941, ""Cossack"" was escorting a convoy from Gibraltar to Great Britain when she was severely damaged by a torpedo fired by the . Crew were transferred to the destroyer , and an attempt was made to tow the badly listing ""Cossack"" back to Gibraltar. However, worsening weather conditions meant the task became impossible and had to be"
"to the rank of 'Able Seacat' Simon and became a celebrity after the ship escaped the Yangtze and returned to Britain. He later succumbed to an infection and died shortly after. Tributes poured in and his obituary appeared in ""The Times"". He was posthumously awarded the Dickin Medal, the only cat ever to earn the award, and was buried with full naval honours. Tarawa was a kitten rescued from a pillbox during the Battle of Tarawa by the United States Coast Guard. She was a mascot aboard an LST, but did not get along with the LST's other mascot, a"
"few months later, on 24 October, killing 159 of her crew, but Oscar again survived to be rescued, and was taken to Gibraltar. He became the ship's cat of HMS ""Ark Royal"", which was torpedoed and sunk in November that year. Oscar was again rescued, but it was decided at that time to transfer him to a home on land. By now known as Unsinkable Sam because of surviving the three ship sinkings, he was given a new job as mouse-catcher in the Governor General's of Gibraltar office buildings. He eventually returned to the UK and spent the rest of"
"in the Antarctic. Peebles was the ship's cat aboard HMS ""Western Isles"". Another cat who became a favourite of the ship's crew, he was known to be particularly intelligent and would shake the hands of strangers when they entered the wardroom. Pooli served aboard a United States attack transport during the Second World War. Rinda was the ship's cat on the Norwegian cargo ship , which was torpedoed and sunk during World War II. When the surviving crew realized that their beloved ship's cat was not on board the lifeboat, they rowed around in the night until they finally heard"
"was so named because of the number of times he accompanied the ship on convoy escort duties. Convoy was listed in the ship's book and provided with a full kit, including a tiny hammock in which he slept. He was killed along with 87 of his crew mates when ""Hermione"" was torpedoed and sunk on 16 June 1942 by German submarine U-205. Emmy was the ship's cat on . She was an orange tabby cat who never missed a voyage. However, on 28 May 1914, Emmy jumped ship while in port in Quebec City. The crew returned her to the"
"Member of the Order of the British Empire for his actions. Also onboard the ""Amethyst"" was a cat named Simon. Simon was wounded during the event and after being fixed up continued to perform his duties catching rats which protected the food supply for the 101 day siege. He also provided moral support for the surviving sailors. Simon died not long after the ship returned to the UK and was posthumously awarded the UK’s Dickin Medal, sometimes referred to as ""the animals' Victoria Cross"". The American ""Suspense"" radio series included an episode entitled ""'Log of the Marne"" (22 October 1951),"
"his life at the 'Home for Sailors'. A portrait of him exists in the private collection of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The Royal Navy banned cats and other pet animals from all ships on the ocean in 1975 on hygiene grounds; however, cats are still common on many private ships. One notable example is ""Toolbox"" (a feral kitten born in a toolbox), the senior ship's cat, official warrant officer and ""Captain's Assistant"" aboard the modern ""Kalmar Nyckel"". A celebrity in her own right, she is the subject of two books. Also, American sailor Robin Lee Graham was the"
"ship, but she left again, leaving her kittens behind. The ""Empress of Ireland"" left without her, which was regarded as a terrible omen. Early the next morning ""Empress of Ireland"" collided with while steaming through fog at the mouth of the St. Lawrence River and rapidly sank, killing over 1,000 people. Felix was the ship's cat aboard ""Mayflower II"" when she set sail from Devon, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1957 to symbolize the solidarity between the UK and the US following World War II. He was given his own life jacket and once suffered a broken paw after a"
"a pitiful ""miauu"" in the distance. ""We rowed as hard as we could and laughed and cried when we lifted the sopping wet furball aboard"". The cat became the ship's cat aboard the rescue ship, the British armed naval trawler , and was given the name Rinda after the previous ship. Simon was the ship's cat of HMS ""Amethyst"" during the Yangtze Incident in 1949, and was wounded in the bombardment of the ship which killed 25 of ""Amethyst""’s crew, including the commanding officer. He soon recovered and resumed killing rats and keeping up the crew's morale. He was appointed"
"(actually a male) was the ship's cat aboard ""Endurance"", the ship used by Sir Ernest Shackleton for his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition. When the ship was lost, having become trapped and eventually crushed in pack ice, Shackleton ordered the sled dogs and Mrs Chippy shot, as Shackleton had decided that the animals could not be kept during the arduous journey ahead. Nansen was the ship's cat on , which was used for the Belgian Antarctic Expedition. He was brought on board by cabin boy Johan Koren, and was named after Fridtjof Nansen. He died on 22 June 1898, and was buried"
"sea. The rarity of polydactyl cats in Europe may be because they were hunted and killed due to superstitions about witchcraft. Genetic work studying the DNA basis of the condition indicates that many different mutations can all lead to polydactyly. Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway was a famous aficionado of polydactyl cats, after being first given, by a ship captain, a six-toed cat he named Snow White. Upon Hemingway's death in 1961, his former home in Key West, Florida became a museum and a home for his cats, and it currently houses approximately fifty descendants of his cats (about half"
"dog named Kodiak, and jumped ship ashore. Tiddles was the ship's cat on a number of Royal Navy aircraft carriers. He was born aboard , and later joined . He was often seen at his favourite station, on the aft capstan, where he would play with the bell-rope. He eventually travelled over during his time in service. Trim was the ship's cat on a number of the ships under the command of Matthew Flinders during voyages to circumnavigate and map the coastline of Australia during 1801–1803. He became a favourite of the crew and was the first cat to circumnavigate"
"gale was still blowing strong. Once back at the wreck of the ""Hopelyn"", coxswain Swan manoeuvred his lifeboat alongside the ""Hopelyn"" holding it in position with great skill. Quickly the crew of the ship left the wireless room and scrambled down ropes on to the motor lifeboat ""Agnes Cross"". One of the crewmen carefully cradled the ship's black cat ""Tishy"" as he boarded the lifeboat. The rescue had taken a total of thirty hours, two lifeboats, one tug but all 23 crewman, the captain and the ship's cat had all been rescued safely. For his part in the rescue of"
"This meeting resulted in the declaration of the Atlantic Charter, but as Churchill prepared to step off ""Prince of Wales"", Blackie approached. Churchill stooped to bid farewell to Blackie, and the moment was photographed and reported in the world media. In honour of the success of the visit, Blackie was renamed Churchill. Blackie survived the sinking of ""Prince of Wales"" by the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service later that year, and was taken to Singapore with the survivors. He could not be found when Singapore was evacuated the following year and his fate is unknown. Camouflage was the ship's cat"
"Peter, the Lord's cat Peter, the Lord's cat (1950 – 5 November 1964), also known as The Marylebone mog, was a cat who lived at Lord's Cricket Ground in London from 1952 to 1964. He is the only animal to be given an obituary in the standard cricket reference book, ""Wisden Cricketers' Almanack"". The obituary appeared in the 1965 edition of Wisden, under the name ""CAT, PETER"". It described him as ""a well-known cricket-watcher"" who ""could often be seen prowling on the field of play""; he ""loved publicity"" and ""frequently appeared on the television"". Despite this, it seems that no"
"and ""Amazon"" are aboard and used as lifeboats when she sinks. <br> Wild Cat (boat) The Wild Cat is a fictional green two-masted schooner that Captain Flint, the Swallows, the Amazons and Peter Duck sail to the West Indies in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons book ""Peter Duck"". She also appears in the opening chapters of ""Missee Lee"". The ship would have been about 50 ft (15 m) long. In the book and the illustrations there is no mention of a head. This is typical of Arthur Ransome's reticence on the issue. The name is taken from Wild Cat Island"
"aboard a US Coast Guard LST in the Pacific theater, WWII. He was known for chasing enemy tracer rounds across the deck. Chibley was the ship's cat aboard the tall ship Barque ""Picton Castle"". She was rescued from an animal shelter and circumnavigated the world five times. ""Picton Castle""’s role as a training ship resulted in Chibley being introduced to a large number of visitors and becoming a celebrity in her own right. Chibley died on November 10, 2011, in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. She had sailed over 180,000 miles at sea. Convoy was the ship's cat aboard HMS ""Hermione"". He"
"Smith's 1955 short story ""The Game of Rat and Dragon"" and Andre Norton's 1968 novel ""The Zero Stone"" featuring a telepathic mutant feline named Eet. Robert A. Heinleins ""The Cat Who Walks Through Walls"" features a cat named Pixel who travels on various space adventures with the narrator. On film, ""Alien"" (1979) and the sequel ""Aliens"" (1989) feature Jones (""Jonesy"") aboard USCSS ""Nostromo"". Ship's cat The ship's cat has been a common feature on many trading, exploration, and naval ships dating to ancient times. Cats have been carried on ships for many reasons, most importantly to control rodents. Vermin aboard"
"Freya (cat) Freya (born c. April 2009) is a tabby cat owned by the former Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom George Osborne and his family. Freya went missing from the Osbornes' house in Notting Hill when she was just a few months old, and after searching West London for her, the family assumed she had died or had become lost. In June 2012, Osborne's wife received a call telling her that Freya was alive, and the family brought her home. In September 2012, Freya shared the role of Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office with the Downing"
"Simon (cat) Simon (c. 1947 – 28 November 1949) was the ship's cat who served on the Royal Navy sloop HMS ""Amethyst"". In 1949, during the Yangtze Incident, he received the PDSA's Dickin Medal after surviving injuries from a cannon shell, raising morale, and killing off a rat infestation during his service. Simon was found wandering the dockyards of Hong Kong in March 1948 by 17-year-old Ordinary Seaman George Hickinbottom, a member of the crew of the British frigate HMS ""Amethyst"" stationed in the city in the late 1940s. At this stage, it is thought Simon was approximately a year"
"photographs of him are known, although his successor, Sinbad, was snapped during a Southern Schools v The Rest match in 1963. Peter is mentioned in the title of a 2006 anthology of Wisden obituaries, ""Peter, the Lord's Cat: And Other Unexpected Obituaries from Wisden"". Peter, the Lord's cat Peter, the Lord's cat (1950 – 5 November 1964), also known as The Marylebone mog, was a cat who lived at Lord's Cricket Ground in London from 1952 to 1964. He is the only animal to be given an obituary in the standard cricket reference book, ""Wisden Cricketers' Almanack"". The obituary appeared"
"aid of his pet. Following these events, Freya was sent to the Kent Countryside to allow her to exercise her desire to roam. Freya (cat) Freya (born c. April 2009) is a tabby cat owned by the former Chancellor of the Exchequer of the United Kingdom George Osborne and his family. Freya went missing from the Osbornes' house in Notting Hill when she was just a few months old, and after searching West London for her, the family assumed she had died or had become lost. In June 2012, Osborne's wife received a call telling her that Freya was alive,"
"Tobermory Cat Tobermory Cat is the name of a celebrity ginger cat used as an ""evolving, interactive artwork"" by Scottish artist Angus Stewart. The ""Distillery Cats"" originally lived at The Tobermory Distillery Tobermory on Mull, Argyll, Scotland, their two ginger cats were named ""Tobermory"" and ""Ledaig"" after two whiskies produced at the Tobermory Distillery. The cat named ""Tobermory"" remained at the distillery, ""Ledaig"" later moved to Browns Hardware Shop. A third ginger cat known as ""McGinty"" or the ""Mishnish Cat"" lived at Mishnish Hotel. Together these three similar ginger cats became a single fictional cat character named ""Tobermory Cat"" in"
"parent cat. There have now been five generations born in the warehouse, the fur of each a little longer and thicker than that of the preceding generation, until now they are covered with fur as thick and close as that of a muskrat, and when removed from the warehouse they cannot stand the warm climate, and soon die. It is a distinct breed of cold-storage cats.” In Britain, the respected naturalist, Richard Lydekker appears to have taken the story at face value. His monograph in a volume of Allen's Naturalist's Library in 1895, though wholly based on an American newspaper"
"""Titanic""s first port of call after Southampton. The animals travelled on their own tickets and even the canary that left at Cherbourg had to be paid for, to the tune of 25 US cents. Like any other ship of the time, ""Titanic"" had a substantial population of rats. One was seen running across the Third Class Dining Room on the evening of the sinking, to the shock and amazement of the diners. Some of the women who saw it burst into tears, while men tried unsuccessfully to capture the rat. Few of ""Titanic""s animals survived the ship's sinking. Three of"