Lost 27 may 1941
bismarck under way, 1940. vessel photograph — attribution established.
VerifiedThe claim, as commonly told
a cat was recovered from the water after the loss of the german battleship bismarck on 27 may 1941. he was taken aboard the british destroyer HMS cossack and remained with her until she was torpedoed in october. he was moved to the aircraft carrier HMS ark royal, which was torpedoed in november. he came through all three.
he is said to have been landed at gibraltar, sent home, and retired to a seamen's home in belfast, where he lived until 1955. british retellings call him unsinkable sam. german retellings call him oskar, which is the older of the two names.
nothing in the two paragraphs above is supported by a document written in 1941.
the claim is stated in full before it is examined. a version that leads with the doubt is a different and lesser story, and it is not the one people repeat. the doubt is in the assessment, where it belongs.
Vessels named in the claim
Twenty-four weeks
in 1941
three ships went down between may and november. the losses are documented in full, down to the hour. nothing in that documentation mentions an animal, and nothing connects any one loss to another.
Lost 27 may 1941
149 days
Lost 27 oct 1941
HMS cossack, pennant L03. vessel photograph — attribution established.
Verified21 days
Lost 14 nov 1941
ark royal listing, 13 november 1941, destroyer alongside. vessel photograph — attribution established.
VerifiedThe count, 27 may 1941
0
Aboard bismarck
0
Recovered
0
Survivor the claim adds
lost
recovered, and accounted for in the rescue records
every man recovered that morning went into a record. the claim adds one more survivor to this picture, and he appears in none of them.
Chain of custody
Four transfers,
none of them papered
for the claim to hold, one animal has to move between four points. each move needs a document. open a link to see which document, and whether it exists.
-
Document required a rescue account, ship's report or survivor statement from 27 may 1941 recording an animal recovered alongside the men. the rescue itself is thoroughly documented by the vessels that carried it out. no version of it mentions a cat.
-
Document required cossack's log for 27 may 1941, or a statement from her crew, placing the animal aboard. cossack operated in the area. her log survives in the ordinary way. it does not carry the entry.
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Document required evidence of a transfer at gibraltar between late october and 13 november 1941. this is the weakest link in the sequence: cossack's survivors were landed and dispersed, and nothing ties any of them, or an animal, to ark royal's company.
-
Document required an admission or residence record at a seamen's home, belfast, 1941–1955. fourteen years is a long time to leave no paper. none has been produced.
One exhibit, attached to nothingthe single object in this file — a pastel portrait of a black and white cat titled as the bismarck's cat, held at the national maritime museum — sits off the chain entirely. it does not join any two points. it records only that somebody believed the story early enough to paint it.
Evidence
Ten items sought.
One found.
| Ex. | Item | Source |
|---|---|---|
| A | pastel portrait of a black and white cat, titled as oscar, the bismarck's cat, by georgina shaw-baker | held — national maritime museum, greenwich |
| B | ship's log, HMS cossack, may–october 1941, naming an animal aboard | None located |
| C | victualling or muster record accounting for a ship's cat on any of the three vessels | None located |
| D | press report of 1941 or 1942 describing the survival sequence | None located |
| E | survivor testimony recorded before 1945 | None located |
| F | record of admission to a seamen's home, belfast | None located |
| G | first appearance in print of the name unsinkable sam | Not established the name is absent from wartime usage and surfaces in later english retellings. |
| H | photograph of a cat held on a ship's deck, widely reproduced as the subject | Unverified no caption, date, photographer or vessel of record. |
| I | photograph of a sailor holding a kitten aloft, widely reproduced as the subject | Unverified subject and date unestablished. |
| J | portrait photograph of a black and white cat wearing an identity tag, reproduced as the subject in most retellings | Misattributed the tag reads HMS amethyst, april 1949. |
0
Items sought
0
Items held
0
Not located
exhibit J. simon, HMS amethyst, 1949.
MisattributedExhibit J
The most reproduced
photograph in the story
is a different cat
the tag on his collar is legible. it reads HMS amethyst, april 1949 — another ship, eight years after the last of the three sinkings, and a different animal with a war record of his own.
this image carries the story across the internet. it is on the encyclopaedia pages, the forum posts and the reprints. it has never been him.
it stays in the file. taking it out would misrepresent how the claim actually travels.
exhibit I. sailor and kitten, vessel and date unestablished.
Unverified
exhibit H. the image used at the head of this file, and the closest thing to a likeness on record.
UnverifiedAssessment
The account is not supported by contemporary record.
the three losses occurred. an animal may well have been aboard any of them, as animals commonly were. what has never been produced is a document placing one cat on all three.
the sequence first appears in print well after the war, in retellings that cite one another rather than a source. the portrait at greenwich is real, and it is a portrait. it records a belief, not an event.
probably embellished. possibly invented. not disproved.
the file remains open. it is not expected to close.
What this is
- Token
- SAM, on base
- Supply
- 1,941,000,000 — fixed, fully circulating
- Launch
- fair. no presale, no allocation, no team wallet
- Liquidity
- burned at launch
- Ownership
- renounced at launch
- Treasury
- none
the file above is the product. it does not improve if the chart does, and it does not become true if enough people buy it. that is the whole joke and it is the only one being made here.