Cats do not really have nine lives, but there once was a cat that had four. Oscar was a black and white feline who patriotically went to war for Germany in WWI. She was on board the mighty battleship Bismarck when it was sunk by the Royal Navy on May 18, 1941. Although only 118 of the 2,200 crew members survived, a cat was found floating on a board. The cat was picked up by the destroyer HMS Cossack and named Oscar. She traitorously switched sides and went on convoy duty with her new British friends. After several months escorting merchant ships in the Mediterranean and North Atlantic, the Cossack was torpedoed by a u-boat with the loss of 139 men. The next day, while under tow, the ship sank, but Oscar was picked up off a piece of plank. She was renamed Unsinkable Sam and adopted by the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. In November, 1941 the ship was torpedoed and sank, but once again the plucky cat was found clinging to debris. At this point, it was decided the cat had had enough (and quite possibly was the opposite of a good luck charm). He was promoted to landlubber at Gibraltar. After the war, Unsinkable Sam was retired to the “Home for Soldiers” in Great Britain, where he passed away in 1955.
https://www.zmescience.com/other/feature-post/unsinkable-sam-cat-wwii/
https://allthatsinteresting.com/unsinkable-sam
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