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A ship's cat known as Unsinkable Sam is said to have survived three sinkings in 1941: the German battleship Bismarck, the British destroyer HMS Cossack and the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal. He was then retired to a sailors' home in Belfast.

Naval folklore

NatureHistory

The story behind the card

According to the story, a black-and-white cat, said to have been called Oscar, was found clinging to floating wreckage after the Bismarck sank in May 1941 and was taken aboard HMS Cossack. Cossack was torpedoed in October; the cat was moved to HMS Ark Royal, which was torpedoed and sank in November. The tale rests on sailors' accounts rather than official records, and historians think it was at least embellished: ships' cats were common, and a good story travelled fast between ports. A pastel portrait of the cat by Georgina Shaw-Baker is in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Sam is said to have lived in Belfast until 1955.

Türkçe oku
Batmayan Sam diye bilinen bir gemi kedisinin 1941'de üç batıştan sağ çıktığı anlatılır: Alman savaş gemisi Bismarck, İngiliz muhribi HMS Cossack ve uçak gemisi HMS Ark Royal. Sam daha sonra Belfast'ta denizciler için açılmış bir yurtta emekliye ayrılmış.

Anlatılana göre Oscar adında siyah beyaz bir kedi, Mayıs 1941'de Bismarck battıktan sonra suda yüzen bir enkaz parçasına tutunmuş hâlde bulunup HMS Cossack'a alındı. Cossack ekimde torpillendi; kedi HMS Ark Royal'e geçti, bu gemi de kasımda torpillenip battı. Hikâye resmî kayıtlara değil, denizcilerin anlattıklarına dayanıyor; tarihçiler de en azından süslendiğini düşünüyor. Gemilerde kedi beslemek yaygındı ve böyle hikâyeler limandan limana hızla yayılırdı. Kedinin Georgina Shaw-Baker'ın yaptığı pastel bir portresi Greenwich'teki Ulusal Denizcilik Müzesi'nde bulunuyor. Sam'in 1955'e kadar Belfast'ta yaşadığı söylenir.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Unsinkable Sam
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