The Little-Known History of Seafaring Pets

From war to exploration to pleasure cruising, pets have often accompanied us on the oceans.

Unsinkable Sam

Oscar (known by his nickname, Unsinkable Sam, or by the Germanized spelling of his name, Oskar) was a ship's cat who purportedly served during World War II with both the Kriegsmarine and the Royal Navy and survived the sinking of three ships in 1941—the German battleship Bismarck, and then the British destroyer HMS Cossack and aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. While contemporary reports of the story were widely publicised in 1941 after the sinking of Ark Royal, including photographs of Oscar, there is no firm evidence to link the cat to Bismarck or Cossack. Contemporary reports On 14 November 1941, the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal was torpedoed and sank a short distance from Gibraltar, where she was returning after ferrying aircraft to Malta in Operation Perpetual. The sinking was announced the same day, and two days later on 16 November the Admiralty confirmed...