By Shav La Vigne
Here is an interesting old Tuck & Sons postcard showing the crew of the U.S.S. Chicago wrestling with their mascot, Brinski the black bear! It was mailed from Brooklyn, New York on November 14, 1906.
U.S.S. Chicago was ordered on March 3, 1883 and was awarded to John Roach & Sons in Chester, Pennsylvania. Construction began on December 29, 1883 and she was launched on December 5, 1885. The Navy contracted $889,000 to have the U.S.S. Chicago built.
Chicago was ordered as part of the “ABCD” group of ships. These ships included three cruisers, U.S.S. Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, and the dispatch vessel Dolphin. She was one of the Navy’s first steel ships.
Her armament included four 8” guns and eight 6” guns. She was powered by two triple expansion 9,000 horse power steam engines fed by six Babcock and Wilcox boilers. The ship was capable of making 18 knots (21 mph).
Chicago was commissioned on April 17, 1889 and served as a cruiser until her decommissioning on September 30, 1923. After that date she was renamed Alton and went through several reclassifications and uses until she was sold on May 15, 1936. Soon, after her sale, she foundered under tow and was lost on July 8, 1936.
Regarding the postcard showing the crew wrestling with their ship mascot, Brinski, the black bear, I was not able to find out how or why the crew was able to get such an unusual animal to act as their mascot. Having a ships mascot was fairly common back then and , in some cases, mascots continue to be an active part of Navy life. Usually mascots are dogs, cats, goats, or some other type of domestic or semi domestic animal. Brinski was a rare exception and lead to the bears being one of the chosen animals of Chicago, thus the Chicago Bears!