A portrait of "Unsinkable Sam", by Georgina Shaw-Baker.
THERE are many cliches about cats, but none more enduring and endearing than the nine lives they are said to have. With regards to this, it has been said over the last 70-plus years that a cat named "Unsinkable Sam" survived the sinking of three ships he'd been on – a battleship, a destroyer and an aircraft carrier.
Is there any truth to this?
Verdict:
TRUE
While some have tried to dispute its veracity by challenging aspects of the story, it has largely been taken as authentic by institutions like the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London – which has a portrait of Unsinkable Sam by the artist Georgina Shaw-Baker in its collection.
According to the caption accompanying the portrait on the museum's website, Sam was originally named "Oscar" and had been initially brought to sea on the German battleship Bismarck.
It added that after Bismarck was sunk on its maiden mission, he was rescued by the British destroyer HMS Cossack and it was his first set of rescuers who then named him Oscar.
According to the Museum, Oscar then survived the sinking of Cossack when the ship was torpedoed on October 27, 1941 and was renamed "Sam" when he was adopted by the crew of the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.
"(He) survived yet again when that was torpedoed on Nov 14, 1941 and was again picked up off a floating board," writes the Museum in its description of the portrait.
Unsinkable Sam – up to this point true to his name – then spent the rest of his life safely on land, first in the offices of the Governor of Gibraltar before finally moving to a home for seamen in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he would pass away in 1955.
As for the contradictions in the story of Unsinkable Sam, the Museum writes that while there was no account of him being on board the Bismarck by survivors, he could have been an illicit pet snuck aboard by one of the crew.
"There is no reason for the artist to have done this portrait if he was not," it concludes.
References:
https://www.rmg.co.uk/
https://www.thegreatcat.org/
