Sammy the Seal.

This is the story of Billy the seal.

In 1912, a fishing boat out of Cardiff ran into something of a problem while hauling in nets in the Irish Sea.

There was a seal in the net.

I suppose the puzzled men only worked out what had happened when they let the fish into the hold. In any case, when they reached the harbour they decided that the best place for the seal was the Victoria park zoo, where he was ensconced in what is now the paddling pool, and there Billy remained for fifteen years, doted on by kids from all over the city.

Things might have come a satisfactory if dull conclusion if it wasn't for the flood.

Cardiff city centre is almost completely flat, which meant that the 1927 flood not only inundated the Canton area of the city, but Victoria Park too.

Billy made the most of his chance.

One report has him attempting to board a swamped tram in a nearby street. Another has him in the back yard of a close by fish restaurant. Apparently he even found time to visit the local church.

Billy died in 1939 - the skeleton is in the Natural History Museum. A post mortem found that years of treats and tidbits from the adoring crowds had finally taken their toll. It also found that Billy might better have been called Betty.

Today there Billy has a statue next to the paddling pool in the park. She also has a comic song that is sung by fathers to their children in Cardiff eighty years after she died. My dad used to entertain us as kids with tales of 'Sammy the seal' and his visits to his two spinster aunts in Cardiff as a boy.

But never mind that. What I want to know is why more people don't remember Billy for her greatest achievement, something that I can only imagine happening in South Wales.

Only in Cardiff could you see a seal use public transport.