Pussy galore

This is a remarkable story aimed at all those who like me can be described as ‘cat obsessives’.

I’m re-reading ‘Carriers At War’, by Adrian Stewart. He describes a remarkable story concerning one, Oskar the ships cat, known, for at least part of its life as Herr Oskar. Mr. Stewart refers to the sinking of the Bismarck and the rescue of a cat clinging to a piece of wreckage. The cat was picked out of the North Atlantic shaking with cold and matted with oil by some of the crew of the destroyer Cossack. The moggy was christened; Herr Oskar.

During October 1941, Cossack was attacked by a U-boat and sunk. Oskar was again among the rescued, taken to Gibraltar and there joined the Ark Royal as ships cat. A little later, Ark Royal was also sunk and once again Oskar was picked up and survived to be once more landed at Gibraltar.

At this point Oskar was thought to be a bit of a Jonah and given a shore based job. His life ended peacefully in 1955.