A Cat At War

Delancey

I had always known from reading Naval history books that when the British Navy sank the German battleship ' Bismarck ' in May 1941 a young cat from the German vessel was among the lucky few to be rescued by a British destroyer - lucky when you consider that out of a crew of over 2,000 men fewer than 200 survived.

I learnt recently from a history book written by a well respected historian the full story of the cat who not surprisingly was christened ' Bismarck ' by the sailors on HMS Cossack , the destroyer that rescued him.

Bismarck remained on Cossack as a ' mascot ' and was onboard in October 1941 when she was torpedoed by a German U-Boat , she was taken in tow to Gibraltar but sank en-route with the loss of 160 crew .
Bismarck was lucky to be rescued by the Aircraft Carrier HMS Ark Royal.

3 weeks later with Bismarck ensconced as a new mascot the Ark Royal was also torpedoed and like Cossack was taken in tow to Gibraltar for repairs but en route broke in 2 and sank and once again Bismarck needed rescuing by a passing destroyer.

Once back on dry land the higher echelons of the British Navy decided that perhaps this cat really was a jinx and seemed to bring nothing but misfortune to ships he served on , it was decided to ' pay off ' Bismarck thus ending his short but eventful Naval career .
Of course this presented the problem of finding him a new home , eventually and surprisingly given the superstitions that sailors are notorious for , the residents of a home for Seamen in Belfast agreed to take him in.
In Christmas 1941 Bismarck was flown to Belfast ( the Navy would not transport him on a ship ), this ' retired ' cat lived in the retirement home for the rest of his long life dying of old age in 1957.

Can't decide was he lucky or unlucky though

Narsil

That's funny, I was only reading about Ship's Cats on Thursday!!! Its so interesting, although they nickname the cat on the Bismarck/Cossack/Ark Royal as 'Unsinkable Sam'!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship%27s_cat

lucycat

Oh bless! That is so sweet Delighted to hear poor old Bismarck got to retire with dignity, love the moniker 'Unsinkable Sam'. Really cheered me up reading that, thanks OP!

Delancey

It would sem that not only did the cat serve on 3 ships he had 3 different names !!
A pity that the tradition of ships mascots has ended - Quarantine regulations had a lot to do with it I think.