|
Josh -> RE: Next quiz (9/9/2010 9:50:07 PM)
|
An unbelievable story; "Unsinkable Sam", or "Herr Oscar"
[img]http://everseradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/animals_at_sea_02.jpg[/img]
Yes that's the actual cat.
" Herr Oscar / Mr. Unsinkable Sam: Named Oscar at birth, this brave warrior feline served as a ship’s cat on the infamous German battleship Bismarck. When his battleship was sunk on 27 May 1941, only 116 out of a crew of over 2,200 survived. Luckily, Oscar was picked up by the destroyer HMS Cossack. Cossack herself was torpedoed and sunk a few months later, on 24 October, killing 159 of her crew, but again, Oscar survived to be rescued, and was taken to Gibraltar. He became the ship’s cat of HMS Ark Royal, but she too 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, he was given a new job as mouse-catcher in the Governor General of Gibraltar’s office buildings. He eventually returned to the UK and spent the rest of his life at the Home for Sailors. To our knowledge here at E-Verse, no cat has had more ships blown out from under him. Unsinkable Sam should be the most decorated of all war cats. He died peacefully 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, Greenwich.
Shows cats *do* have nine lives.
|
|
|
|
