Officers of the association
Admiralty Instructions for dealing with the storage of torpedoes
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- Why can’t they make aeroplanes out of the stuff that the black box is made of Why is there only one monopolies commission Time heals all things except a dripping tap.
- _____________________________________________________________________ CATS AT SEA
- Oskar (alias Oscar) of the Bismarck
- Ratcatcher Off Watch on HMS Cossack
- STOP PRESS Can you help II
- Members’ E-Mail Addresses
- MEMBERS E-MAIL ADDRESSES
- Please report any corrections or changes to the Secretary
Admiralty Instructions for dealing with the storage of torpedoes It is necessary for technical reasons that these warheads should be stored with the top at the bottom and the bottom at the top. In order that there may be no doubt as to which is the top and which is the bottom, for storage purposes, it will be seen that the bottom of each head has been labelled with the word TOP. ____________________ HAVE YOU NOTICED Everything is further away than it used to be, it is even twice as far to the corner and they added a hill. I have given up running for the bus, it leaves earlier than it used to and it seems as though they are making the stair steeper than in the old days, also have you noticed the smaller print that they use in the newspapers? There’s no sense in asking anyone to have a conversation with you because everyone speaks so quietly that I can hardly hear them. The material in dresses is so skimpy now, especially around the hips and waist that it is almost impossible to reach one’s shoelaces and the sizes don’t run the way they used to. The 12’s and 14’s are so much smaller. Even people are changing, they are so much younger than they used to be when I was their age. On the other hand, people my own age are so much older than I am. I ran into an old classmate the other day and she had aged so much that she didn’t recognise me. I got to thinking about the poor dear whilst I was combing my hair this morning and in doing so I happened to glance at my own reflection. Really now, they don’t even have good mirrors like they used to. Wife of Anon ____________________________________________________________________ Why can’t they make aeroplanes out of the stuff that the black box is made of? Why is there only one monopolies commission? Time heals all things except a dripping tap. Did you hear about the new recruit who thought that a port allocation was a free drink? Mrs “B” has had no clothes for a year and has been regularly visited by the social services. _____________________________________________________________________ CATS AT SEA Dusty Rhodes, one of our shipmates from Canada, attended the reunion in April and had seen the story of Oscar the cat which is a permanent feature of the “Archive Room” in the Burlington Hotel and asked if he could have a copy. We were pleased to oblige. At about the same time George Toomey had found a copy of a book about pets in the services and sent on several pieces from the book about cats, which were pets aboard HM Ships. Two of them concerned cats which were aboard Cossack. One is a slightly different version of our Oscar story (L03) and the other about Buster Stumpy (D57) and are reproduced below. The piece about Buster Stumpy doesn’t say which commission he served on. The 1951-54 commission had a dog, Sheena, but no cat. Anyone remember Buster Stumpy? Any other stories about Cossack’s pets would be appreciated for future newsletters and should be sent to the Secretary. ____________________ Oskar (alias Oscar) of the Bismarck Oskar, a strange black cat with tabby markings, was one year old when recruited to the German battleship Bismarck. He rapidly developed an uncanny bond with the crew, who regarded him as a manifestation of the ship's indomitable spirit and that of her awesome namesake, Germany's "Iron Chancellor". With the distinguished Admiral Gunther Lutjens as commander, it seemed Oscar's future was assured for all of his nine lives. Admiral Lutjens, sometimes referred to as "the Black Devil", had a strong sense of destiny and it was no secret that he felt that Bismarck's career would end in tragedy and that he himself would not survivor His fatalistic attitude was unnerving at a time of war, and it is no wonder that the crew latched on to the ship's cat as a symbol of fortitude. On May 24, 1941, Oscar was aboard when the Bismarck dramatically sank the British battleship HMS Hood in the Atlantic, with the loss of over 1,400 lives. British ships went into action and relentlessly pursued the German ship. On May 26 a torpedo from a Swordfish aircraft, which had taken off from HMS Ark Royal, hit the German battleship, jamming the rudder and rendering her unmanoeuverable. Now an easy target, next day the crippled vessel was attacked again by the British, and sunk. Out of a crew of 2,090 there were only 110 survivors. Admiral Lutjens courageously went down with his ship but the same fate did not befall Oskar. Because of the cat's strong bond with the crew, it's said that he took on a mystic mission to avenge the victims of the Bismarck. As the ship keeled over, Oskar gambled on one of his nine lives and took to the water. According to Janusz Piekalkiewicz, the Polish war historian, he was picked up by the British destroyer, HMS Cossack. The Cossack had earlier been withdrawn from the scene of conflict and was crossing the same waters on her way home when one of the crew spotted the bedraggled black cat clinging to a piece of wood floating amongst the debris and dead bodies of the Bismarck crew. The half drowned black cat was hauled aboard and revived. In its pitiful state, it seemed harmless. The few Bismarck survivors, finding some solace in his escape, identified him as their mystic mascot Oskar. The Cossack crew made a huge fuss of him and adopted him on the assumption that any creature fortunate to have survived such a dramatic sea battle was bound to bring them luck. He was renamed Oscar. At a later stage he was also occasionally referred to as "Unsinkable Sam". But this dauntless feline survivor's good luck was not to last. Five months later the Cossack itself was sunk. Oscar fearlessly jumped into the ocean and again managed to swim to a piece of wood and was apparently calmly cleaning himself as he bobbed up and down on the waves when one of the crew of the aircraft carrier, HMS Ark Royal, spotted him and hauled him aboard. Another of his lives used up! But it was becoming painfully obvious that Oscar was a serious jinx. Instead of bringing luck to the Ark Royal, the ill-fated ship was torpedoed by a U-boat in November 1941. By then Oscar knew exactly what to do. It was almost a matter of routine to jump into the water and swim to the nearest piece of floating debris. Deciding not to wait for orders to abandon ship, crewman Tom Blundell also jumped into the ocean from the stricken vessel and, on surfacing, was amazed to find he was swimming alongside the invincible Oscar. HMS Legion rescued the 1,487 officers and men - and Oscar. Another of his nine lives forfeited! It could be argued that he did bring some good fortune to the ship for only one rating died in that disaster. But HMS Legion, hearing of the cat's previous poor record as a lucky mascot, wisely resisted the temptation to recruit him. He was compulsorily retired. Official records state that as a precaution he was taken ashore at Gibraltar as a "suspected jinx" and handed over to the harbour master and from there was duly posted to an Old Sailors' Home in Belfast. But this precaution proved futile for HMS Legion who did not escape Oscar's mysterious powers of vengeance. She was also sunk on 26 March 1943, when she was attacked from the air in Malta. Perhaps Oscar's sixth sense had warned him to seek a permanent base on dry land before his own luck ran out. After all, he only had four lives left. British psychic animal portrait artist, Georgina Baker Shaw, believed she had a powerful spiritual relationship with Oscar. She hadn't heard of him before he made spiritual contact with her and apparently he passed on to her information about his mystic mission. In 1960 she did a pastel portrait of him, which is now at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Turkish parapsychologist, Aziz Evliyaoglu, describes Oscar as a "deathless" spirit who took on all the negative energy of Bismarck's tragic end, which he subsequently discharged towards the British ships that unwittingly adopted him as their mascot. "Perhaps he was a substance, like the ancient Egyptians' Ankh, designed to bring bad luck to the Bismarck's foes." Deathless or not, Oscar found life as a landlubber much to his liking, for he died peacefully at the Old Sailors' Home in Belfast, in 1955, at the grand old age of 15 years. He certainly earned his reputation for being one of the luckiest ships' cats of all time, or the unluckiest according to how one looks at it. And there are some who believe he lives on, as a feline spirit with uncanny powers. ____________________ Ratcatcher Off Watch on HMS Cossack Buster Stumpy (D57), like all good sailors, slept in his own hammock, slung up in the Forward Mess Deck. And, like all good ships' cats, when he wasn't prowling around hunting mice, he spent most of his time sleeping instead of entertaining the crew. Once when the Captain was carrying out his early rounds, he came across Buster Stumpy curled up asleep. A note was pinned to his hammock: "Stumpy, Ratcatcher Off Watch. Do not Disturb". Members of the crew who have the Middle Watch (0000-0400) are entitled to "Guard and Steerage", meaning they are permitted to stay in for an extra half hour in the morning when the rest of the Crew have to get up. The crew felt that it was necessary for Buster Stumpy's lazy habits to be drawn to the attention of the Captain. ____________________________________________________________________ STOP PRESS Can you help II? A last minute request by e-mail has been received from a Joyce Taylor. Her brother, Gilbert Jowett, was adopted before she was born and, after many years looking for him, finally traced him and his family just after he had died. She therefore never met him and is keen to get any memories of him. She knows that Gilbert, known as Joe, joined the Navy in 1948 and served in Cossack during the Korean War. Can anyone help Joyce out? Do any of you D57 members remember “Joe” Jowett? If you do, please get in touch with the Secretary, Peter Harrison. ____________________________________________________________________ Funeral Costs A few weeks ago I attended the cremation service of a family friend and saw for the first time one of the eco-friendly cardboard coffins. To be honest, it didn’t look all that wonderful and, in a way, disrespectful. Thinking about it afterwards though it would have been quite OK covered with a White Ensign and would be a considerable saving of cost. It’s worth thinking about. ____________________________________________________________________ Members’ E-Mail Addresses One of the many downsides of a computer failure in which data is lost is the loss of things like addresses. My biggest loss was probably the e-mails I had received between 20th March and mid April. I subsequently recovered my e-mail address book as at 19th March but were their any changes sent to me in that lost period? The list of addresses on the back page may, or may not, be up to date so I would be grateful if those members who use e-mail would check to see that theirs is included and is correct. As you can see from that page, the number of our members using e-mail is increasing and soon one page won’t be enough. Not that I’m complaining! If all our members had e-mail addresses it would be easier to get answers to queries such as that about Gilbert Jowett above. MEMBERS E-MAIL ADDRESSES Admiral Sir James Eberle AdmiralJim@lineone.net Margaret Atherton MAAthert@aol.com Bill Bartholomew bill@hmscossack.freeserve.co.uk Fred Barton fred@fbarton90.freeserve.co.uk Keith Batchelor keith@beaconroad.freeserve.co.uk Mike Bath soapy@mickbath.freeserve.co.uk John Batty cossack@flatrate.net.au John Bishop jbishop.cossack@onetel.net.uk Tony Brown tony@beaufort83.fsnet.com Tom Brown t.mbrown@bmts.com Cdr. K.P. Bruce-Gardyne patrick@b-gardyne.fsnet.co.uk Philip Bryant philip.bryant@ukonline.co.uk George Bye g_bye@talk21.com Russell Campling russellcampling@hotmail.com Jack Caswell Jack1cas@aol.com Mike Cook MikeStensonCook@aol.com Fred Cook fredcookhome@aol.com Fred Cooper frederick.cooper@ntlworld.com Fred Craddock eigthds@aol.com Brian Eames brian@beames.freeserve.co.uk Stan Edgell edgellas@aol.com Alan Edinborough aedinborough@tiscali.co.uk Geoff Embley naughtycal@ns.sympatico.ca Dave Fenton dfenton@rogers.com Liz Foster-Hall liz@foster-hall.freeserve.co.uk Pat Gaffney valerie.gaffney@btopenworld.com Betty Gilham egilham@bushinternet.co.uk Alastair Gordon alfaye.gordon@tiscali.co.uk Janet Grist mrsjan@pebbles-nursery.co.uk John Gritten aagg@btinternet.com Geirr Haarr ghaa@statoil.com Peter Hampstead peter hampstead@ntlworld.com Stan Hannaford stanhannaford@hotmail.com Peter Harrison (Secretary) cossack.assn@tiscali.co.uk Dave Hawkes patanda@btinternet.com David Helyar Davehelyar@aol.com Jan Hennell jjhennell@bigpond.com David Higgins dhiggin8@ford.com Peter Jackson pjaxon@ntlworld.com Tom Kay tom@kaybn13.freeserve.co.uk Alec Kellaway e.kellaway@tiscali.co.uk Graham Keyes Gkeyes@btinternet.com Brian Lambie bds.classics@ntlworld.com Geoff Lane Geofflane@tesco.net Stan Leadbetter alanesewell@hotmail.com Nigel Lester n.lester@amserve.com Brian Luter b17luter@ntlworld.com Bob McLean bisnad@aol.com Peter Marchant peter.bosun@virgin.net Terry Matthews matthewsllb@tinyworld.co.uk Dusty Miller GEMSPEC@FSBDial.co.uk Finn Nesvold f-nesvo@online.no Doug Parkinson dparkinson@onetel.net.uk Brian Patterson bhp.ports@virgin.net Jack Price Ppamelajack@aol.com Jack Race racebe@aol.com Philip Remnant bees@premnant.fsnet.co.uk Harry Ripp hripp@hotkey.net.au Don Rush donval.rush@virgin.net Ken Satterthwaite kensatt@tinyonline.co.uk Geoff Scarlett gscarl@aol.com Dr. Neil Shand nshand@zip.com.au Anne Smith annepsmith@talk21.com Frank Spendelow frank.spendelow@tesco.net Carol Taylor carol@snookerdebts.co.uk Les & Jean Taylor taylor3@evemail.net F.M. Thomas f.m.thomas@ntlworld.com Colin Trigg colin@northgate99.freeserve.co.uk Mike Tunks miketunks@hotmail.com Frank Weedon frank.sheila@fweedon.freeserve.co.uk Don Whittick dewhit@mail.pacificcoast.net John Williams john@josylanja.freeserve.co.uk Please report any corrections or changes to the Secretary Directory: download download -> Performance Tuning Guidelines for Windows Server 2008 May 20, 2009 Abstract download -> Northern England’s set-jetting locations download -> Bbc archives: Beyond the programme download download -> Occupational health and safety download -> Dynatest 3031 lwd light Weight Deflectometer download -> Forth coming competitive exams download -> English Olympiad Tasks: 10 th form Аудіювання, 10 клас. Текст download -> Brush High School Morning Announcements Friday, September 05, 2014 all school download -> Year 9 The Arts — Music download -> Years 7 and 8 standard elaborations — Australian Curriculum: Music draft Download 133.18 Kb. Share with your friends:
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