Talk:Unsinkable Sam

A fact from Unsinkable Sam appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 30 January 2008, and was viewed approximately 12,445 times (disclaimer) (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:

Did you know... that Unsinkable Sam was a ship's cat of both the Kriegsmarine and Royal Navy during the Second World War who survived the sinking of all three ships on which he served?

A record of the entry may be seen at Wikipedia:Recent additions/2008/January.

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Clarification

Did really 159 of the Cossack men died?? It is a whole lot, especielly as it is about as many crew as destroyers had onboard. (+ sometimes a ship-cat). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.233.60.137 (talk) 18:29, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

159 fatalities is the number given by the HMS Cossack Association on their webpage, which also lists all 159. The ship's complement is given as 219, so yes, it was most of them. — BillC ^talk 19:15, 3 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Under the section for the HMS Ark Royal, it says that it was this ship in question "which ironically had been instrumental in the destruction of [the] Bismarck"

I'm curious how one English ship was involved in the destruction of another in this current time era. Any clarification is appreciated. Shint (talk) 18:13, 30 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The Bismarck was a German ship, as explained in the article (and indicated by her name).--129.70.14.129 (talk) 20:34, 30 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Oh wow, I feel really ashamed now. For some reason, because the Ark Royal was after the Cossack, I thought the article was referring to that ship instead of the Bismark. Nothing like being an idiot.

Shint (talk) 16:19, 31 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Image copyright problem with Image:Bismark1040.jpg

The image Image:Bismark1040.jpg is used in this article under a claim of fair use, but it does not have an adequate explanation for why it meets the requirements for such images when used here. In particular, for each page the image is used on, it must have an explanation linking to that page which explains why it needs to be used on that page. Please check

That there is a non-free use rationale on the image's description page for the use in this article.
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This is an automated notice by FairuseBot. For assistance on the image use policy, see Wikipedia:Media copyright questions. --13:09, 15 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Nonsense

On the "German Battleship Bismarck" talk page, I posted a note that this is an urban myth (albeit a great one, I have to say!) bigpad (talk) 11:01, 26 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Also, the Purr-n-Fur site linked at the bottom of the page gives a number of solid reasons why the story of Unsinkable Sam is likely false. http://www.purr-n-fur.org.uk/featuring/war02.html#oscar —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.130.218.69 (talk) 09:46, 2 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I was the creator of this article, and am inclined to concur -- there is increasing evidence that the story is merely an urban myth, albeit one that is reported as fact in a number of sources. Perhaps it is time to take it to WP:AFD —BillC ^talk 21:13, 3 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Casualties on Bismarck

This article says there were 115 survivors from the sinking of the Bismarck. The article on the Bismark says that 1995 of 2200 died (leaving 205 survivors). Anybody know which is correct?

Also, the specifications in that article (and elsewhere) give a crew complement of 2092, not 2200.T-bonham (talk) 08:27, 16 December 2010 (UTC)[reply]

There surprisingly has never been a solid figure given for Bismarck's complementat the time of her sinking. Her normal establishment was swollen by various no-standard personnel on board, such as multiple prize crews for manning any captured merchant vessels carrying valuable cargoes, Günther Lütjens fleet staff, and propaganda corps press journalists.

Her normal complement of 2065 is estimated to have been around the 2200 mark at the time of her sinking. 92.16.42.113 (talk) 17:26, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Picture?

What are the chanced that there is a picture of this cat? That would really increase teh coolness factor of this page.MilkStraw532 (talk) 22:56, 27 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Link at top to painting, at UK National Maritime Museum. Note comment: "The most famous and historical Cat in history." OK--Pete Tillman (talk) 20:17, 10 October 2017 (UTC)....[reply]

Origin of legend

Do we know when this story was first written, published in a newspapaer or in a book? Was it created during the war or after it ended? --Andreas (talk) 10:04, 11 February 2020 (UTC)[reply]

There are wartime photographs of a cat being petted by a number of RN officers which is attributed to be "Sam", but of course the whole story was concocted in a "Guz" pub by drunken matelots, having had one tot too many. 92.16.42.113 (talk) 17:29, 20 November 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Copyright problem removed

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