Whether you're into dogs, cats, fish or even if you're one of those weird bird loving people, you have to have respect for "Unsinkable Sam" one of the luckiest (or unluckiest depending on your perspective) animals of WW2.
The name "Unsinkable" might somewhat give away what this ferocious feline is famous for... Surviving the sinking of three separate ships as well as surviving countless naval battles. However, the name Unsinkable Sam was not some brilliant stroke of luck or foresight. "Unsinkable" was a name given to him towards the end of his sailing career, after he had amassed a bit of fame and somewhat of a cult following. Sam had multiple different names throughout his life and in fact we don't even know what his original name was. What we do know however, is that he served in two separate Navy's.
At this point you may be asking "what the fuck was a cat doing in the navy anyway?". You see, back in the day, it wasn't uncommon to have cat's on board ship's. They killed disease carrying rodents, provided companionship and were easy to care for. Most Navy's had a ship's cat's, and the Kriegsmarine (the German Navy) was no exception. That's right, Sam started his career as a Nazi.
Anyway, as I was saying. We don't really know what Sam's original German name was. Probably Heinz or Gunter or something like that. Regardless of his original name, Sam began his career, serving on the Bismarck, the pride of the German Navy. The Bismarck had been tasked with disrupting Allied shipping from North America to Great Britain. During this time, the Bismarck sunk HMS Hood and significantly damaged HMS Prince of Wales in the Battle of the Denmark Straight.
At this point in time, Britannia still ruled the waves, and having the Bismarck pull this off, must have damaged their pride a little because how they retaliated was almost absurd. Britain, litterally threw dozens of warships out into ocean with the sole purpose of hunting down this one German vessel. The Bismarck could only take on so many. On 27 May 1941 the Bismarck sunk after a fierce battle. Only 118 of her 2,200 crew survived. 119 if you count Sam, who was found hours after the battle had concluded, clinging to dear life on the remnants of a wooden table. Given the option to drown as a Nazi or live as sailor in the Royal Navy, Sam quickly abandoned his old ideologies, presumably thinking they were a bit radical anyway and signed up to serve his new king as the new Ship's Cat on HMS Cossack.
The crew of HMS Cossack took a liking to Sam and named him "Oscar" after the code for "man overboard". (To avoid confusion, I'm going to continue to call him Sam). Sam happily served on HMS Cossack for the next few months, assisting it escort duties in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic. On one of these escorts, HMS Cossack was engaged by a German Submarine U-563 which fired multiple Torpedoes at Sam's ship. Unfortunately one made contact with the front of HMS Cossack, killing 159 members of the crew. The Navy attempted to recover HMS Cossack and tow it to the nearest port, however the weather worsened and the ship was lost to the ocean. A day later Sam was miraculously found clinging to a floating plank in the middle of the ocean, dehydrated and hungry. Some historians have speculated that spotting him may have been aided by the steam coming out of his ears from how fucking pissed he was that his crew had abandoned him. Well better late than never I suppose. Sam was saved once again and taken back to shore with the rest of his crew.
When the British officers learnt of Sam's second miraculous escape from a doomed vessel, they changed his name from Oscar and officially dubbed him with his famous title "Unsinkable Sam". Knowing officers, they probably then proceeded to give each other some hand shandy's and nominated each other for commendations for their stroke of genius before getting some much needed rest from all that hard work and treating themselves to some cucumber sandwiches.
The remaining survivors of HMS Cossack's crew were later transferred to HMS Ark Royal. This was ironic because the HMS Ark Royal and HMS Cossack were the main two ships that took down Sam's original vessel, the Bismarck. The HMS Ark Royal actually has quite the service record and if you're a naval fanatic, I highly recommend looking her up but to summarise. Whilst Sam served on HMS Ark Royal, the ship survived many battles and much like our hero himself, was reported as sunk on multiple occasions but always seemed to come back from the dead for more carnage and destruction. She was the kind of ship that would get knocked on its ass only to get up, spit out some blood and teeth stating "I didn't hear no bell" in a gruff smokers voice before making a movie worthy comeback and smashing the enemies face into pulp. HMS Ark Royal would do this time and time again, taking out countless German ships until one day, off of the cost of Malta, she was knocked down one last time and never got back up.
Once again, it was a mad rush to abandon ship and once again, do you think anyone bothered to grab the fucking ships cat? No. Sam was once again left to die. Whilst the crew may have been yet again perfectly content with letting Sam drown, Sam was not. He had survived more battles than almost anyone else in the Royal Navy, had gathered hundreds of confirmed kills on the ships rats and a hatred so strong, that only a cat could contain it. Through pure fury and discontent, Sam escaped yet again and was found clinging to a floating plank next to the motor launch. The official quote written in the Captains log is that Sam was found "angry but quite unharmed". Angry must have been an understatement. At this point, I wouldn't have blamed him if he decided to go back and join the Germans. But whether it was out of love for his King, the Royal Navy itself or more likely, the fact he was a cat and had zero say on what he was doing next, he continued to serve.
Whether it was because the British Navy thought this poor cat had seen enough or whether they decided that Sam, might have been a bad luck charm, he was never posted to a ship again. The remainder of Sam's career saw him posted to the Governor Generals office in Gibraltar and then later to a home for Sailors to get back on their feet after the war, hunting mice and raising morale until the end of his earthly days.
As for Sam’s legacy, it goes to show that even in the most dire of circumstances, even as everything around you is crumbling down, you can still cling on to a piece of wood, get rescued, and move on to another ship and start over again. Or it goes to show that cats really do have 9 lives — all of which are absolutely worth living for.