USS Chicago (1885)

Protected Cruiser (1885)

USS Chicago was a protected cruiser of the United States Navy and largest of the three cruisers authorized by the Congress as part of the “New Navy” and a steel ship. Launched on 5 December 1885 at the former John Roach, later Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works in Chester, Pennsylvania, commissioned on 17 April 1889. Auhorized in 1883 this protected masted cruiser was larger than the Atlantas, and intended for long range missions in distant stations. Protection comprised a tiny 1-1/2 inches deck extending 136 feet over the machinery spaces and 3/4 inches above the machinery itself. Armament comprised four 8-inches (203 mm) in upper deck sponsons amidships with the fore pair abreast the foremast, and aft pair between the main and aft masts.

A glorious colorization of USS Chicago by Irootoko Jr, and the original below.

The rest were in side sponsons behind hull’s apertures and mixed 6-in and 5-in guns in addition to light artillery. She had no torpedo tubes. USS Chicago was rigged as a barque wihout royals and had a tall hull made for heavy weather, in stark contrast with the Atlantas which sat very low on the water and were often wet. USS Chicago also had a clipper stern and reasonably sloped ram. She carried almost double the coal compared to the Atlanta, for a much greater range well served by a robust Compound engine of the on two shafts. Speed was also better at 14 knots.
On trials based on 5,084 ihp she managed 15.4 knots.

In 1895 she rebuilt with 1-1/2 deck plating added over the steering, one inch over the gun crews, one and 1/8 in over 70 feet to reinforce the bow. The conning tower received 3-inches walls (76 mm). At the same time her armament was upgraded with new 8-inches 35 caliber main guns instead of 30 caliber wheeras the 6-inches and 5-inches were replaced by a battery of fourteen 5-inches/40 guns. The machinery was overhauled with two VTE engines fed by six Babcock and wilcox boiler and 9,000 ihp total almost double than before, and better top speed at 18 knots, masts reduced to pole and no rigging.
In 1910-1917 USS Chicago became a training ship for the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania naval militias. Later she became a receiving ship for submarines until 1923, almost disarmed, retaining our 5-inches and named USS CA14 to free her name for a new cruiser. She was transferred to Pearl Harbor as accomodation ship until 1935 as USS Alton, discarded and sold for BU, but lost while towed en route in July 1936.

Development

USS Chicago in the engineer 1883, while in construction

Chicago was ordered as part of the “ABCD” ships with the two Atlanta and single USS Boston plus the dispatch vessel Dolphin. All were cruisers and all steel-hulled ships, the first new entries of the “New Navy”. All ordered from the same experienced shipyard, John Roach yard on the Delaware River (later Iron Ship Building and Engine Works) of Chester. Secretary of the Navy William C. Whitney however initially refused to accept Dolphin as he found her design was not acceptable. The John Roach yard went bankrupt and Chicago’s completion was delayed for three years, time for the new direction of the Delaware River Iron Ship Building and Engine Works to setup it’s own company, recruit a workforce and appoint engineers. Chicago was also built with a sailing rig for her range. Unlike the Atlantas and more like USS Boston, she was designed to roam open seas and prey on trade or any enemy nation. This was the early beginning of the expedients of a post-civil war Navy that basically vanished in the last decade.

USS Chicago was certainly not the last ship named after the famous great lakes city, in 1923 she freed the name for CA-29, a Northampton-class heavy cruiser lost in January 1943 and CA-136, a Baltimore-class heavy cruiser commissioned in 1945 and later converted to an Albany-class guided missile cruiser (CG-11) struck in 1984 and replaced by SSN-721, Los Angeles-class nuclear attack submarine decommissioned last year (2023). So what ship next will sport that name ? Leave your ideas in the comments below.

Design of the class

Hull and general design

USS Chicago displaced 4,500 long tons (4,572 t), she was the heaviest ship of the ABCD serie. She had an overall length of 342 ft 2 in (104.29 m) and 325 ft (99 m) at the perpendiculars. She was the widest also at 48 ft 3 in (14.71 m) and with a reasonable draft of 19 ft (5.8 m) ensuring stability. Design wise, she was a more balanced, with much higher freeboard and internal space, but also better armed and faster ship, a real game changer. She was the most impressive vessel of the quatuor with still a relatively free deck with little structures, three masts with the main and fore having three stage schooner rigging, stud sail on the aft mast, and two jibs forward. She of course had a ram, a dark red hull without waterline separation, white hull, sand superstructures, a decorated prow above the ram, forecastle but no poop deck, a long battery deck protected behind bulwarks and a lower battery deck dotted with guns openings and more sponsons. She carried 11 boats, all but two aft under davits, were on decks. To communicate on the sponsons decks, there were a staircase aft of the rear sponson, and two side ones communicating with the fore sponson. The conning tower was tall, one deck above the forward spons deck, which had an open bridge in a shoehorn froward.

Protection

She had as a protected cruiser a minimal armour scheme, with main guns shields 4 inches (100 mm) thick, themselves encased inside covered sponsons structures, decked, with light anti-personal fire protection. The armoured deck was only 1.5 inches (38 mm) thick overall, with sloped sides. The conning tower forward was protected against light cannon fire and shrapnel at 3 inches (76 mm) thick for its walls. This was augmented later during refit (see below).

Powerplant

USS Chicago came out with the largest powerplant of the ABCD, with two screw propellers, four balded bronze, driven by two Compound overhead beam (COB) steam engines producing 5,084 ihp (3,791 kW)? Steam was provided by no less than fourteen single ended cylindrical boilers working at 100 psi. To speed was 14 knots (16 mph; 26 km/h) on paper. She carried 830 short tons (750 t) of coal for steam along range, which was evaluated as 5300 nautical miles at 10 knots. But she was also rigged as a barque to spare coal on long deployments, which gave some tactical options when deployed far from home.

Armament

Chicago’s original armament comprised the following:
-Four 8-inch (203 mm)/30 caliber Mark 2 guns (same as the Atlantas, check it for data). Under their own sponsons structures fore and aft, fully decked.
-Eight 6-inch (152 mm)/30 caliber Mark 2 guns four either broadside in hull cutouts in the lower battery deck.
-Two 5-inch (127 mm)/31 caliber Mark 1 guns in protruding lower hull sponsons froward
-Two 6-pounder 57 mm (2.24 in) guns, location uncertain
-Four 3-pounder 47 mm (1.85 in) guns, inclding two in protruding, smaller lower hull sponsons aft
-Two 1-pounder 37 mm (1.46 in) Hotchkiss revolver cannon likely on the sponsons decks
-Two .45 caliber (11.4 mm) Gatling guns, same location dismountable for landing parties.

Modernization

In 1895–99 USS Chicago was refitted at New York Navy Yard. Her 8-inch guns (203 mm) were replaced by new 35 caliber Mark 4 guns while the jungle of secondary guns was removed and in place, fourteen new 5-inch (127 mm)/40 caliber Mark 3 guns were installed. Location seen above. The sails were removed as her powerplant was completely upgraded as well with six new double-ended Babcock & Wilcox cylindrical boilers plus two horizontal triple-expansion engines for a rating up to 9,000 ihp (6,700 kW) now allong for 18 knots (21 mph; 33 km/h).
In 1902 she had an extended armored deck and so reached up to 5,000 long tons (5,080 t).
In 1915 she became a training ship with only twelve 4-inch (102 mm)/40 caliber guns.
In 1918 she became flagship with four 5-inch (127 mm)/51 caliber guns.
In 1920 she became as a submarine tender based at Pearl Harbor, fully disarmed. This will not changed until she was stricken, but superstructures were built up as she served as an accomodation vessel.

USS Chicago’s crew and officers in 1903

Career of USS Chicago

On 7 December 1889, USS Chicago departed Boston for Lisbon in Portugal (21 December) and she cruised in European and Mediterranean waters, always as flagship of the “Squadron of Evolution” until 31 May 1890. That day she was in Funchal, Madeira and headed for Brazilian and West Indian ports until sailing back to New York on 29 July.

Flagship, Squadron of Evolution
Next she operated along the east coast and also off South America and in Caribbean, same rome as flagship but later her squadron became the North Atlantic Squadron until 1893. She was seen in the International Naval Review in Hampton Roads by April 1893 and after preparations left New York on 18 June for a new cruise between Europe and Mediterranean waters, still as flagship, European station under command of no less than Alfred Thayer Mahan, soon to be a world-renown naval strategist. USS Chicago was back to New York on 20 March 1895, placed in reserv and decommissioned for a refit.

Squadron of the Evolution, 1889”. Ships from left to right: USS Chicago, USS Yorktown, USS Boston, and USS Atlanta. These ships were the first steel ships of the “New Navy”. Photographed by Detroit Publishing Company, between 1890 and 1901.

USS Chicago in 1893

European Station
USS Chicago was recommissioned on 1 December 1898, making a short cruise in the Caribbean, then heading for the European Station on 18 April and back to to New York on 27 September. She missed indeed the Hispano-American war but took part in the naval parade and Dewey celebration of 2 October 1899. On 25 November she departed New York for another long cruise, as flagship, South Atlantic Station, until early July 1901 and flagship, European Station. She cruised in northern European waters but also in the Mediterranean, and while back, Caribbean waters until 1 August 1903. Next she was seen at the Oyster Bay New York Presidential Review.

USS Chicago in 1898

Pacific Squadron
From 3 December 1903 until 15 August 1904, USS Chicago was decommissioned at Boston for an overhaul. She cruised along the northeast coast and reached Newport News on 17 November, then proceeded to for Valparaíso in Chile. She arrived on 28 December and on 1 January 1905, she relieved USS New York as flagship, Pacific Squadron. She stayed there until 1908, cruising on the west coast of North and South America. But she also proceeded yearly to Panama crossings and exercises in the Caribbean. She also went to Hawaii each year.

The Hero of San Francisco
In 1906 she was committed during the evacuation of San Francisco after the earthquake. While off San Diego on 19 April her radio relay allowed the city to be reconnected to the US and the worl and indeed there was no telephone or telegraph. Two officers and 16 ratings from the cruiser also landed and supervised the waterborne evacuation, in all some 20,000 refugees were moved to Tiburon in Marin County in several rotations and she also coordinated a fleet of many evacuation vessels. The effort, albeit not in wartime was unprecedented and on the scale if the 1940 evacuation of Dunkirk.

As Training Ship
On 8 January 1908, USS Chicago left San Diego for the east coast. In May she joined the Naval Academy Practice Squadron and took part in the summer cruise on the northeast coast, until 27 August, before entering the reserve until 14 May and until 28 August 1909 she operated with the Practice Squadron, east coast and back to Annapolis. On 4 January 1910, she headed for Boston and make it on 23 January placed in commissioned reserve for the Massachusetts Naval Militia, until 12 April 1916, then she was moved to the Pennsylvania Naval Militia until April 1917 acting as training ship and partially disarmed.

Wartime Activites
On 6 April 1917, as the US were at war, USS Chicago was recommissioned at Philadelphia and sent as tender to the Submarine Force, Atlantic (COMSUBLANT) and flagship, based in New London, Connecticut. She was there under command Thomas C. Hart, future admiral. On 10 July 1919 she sailed from New York to Cruiser Division 2 as flagship, Pacific. In 1920 she became CA-14 and CL-14 in 1921 among reorganizations and from December 1919 to September 1923 she as the SubDiv 14 tender in Pearl Harbor.

Interwar years
USS Chicago was decommissioned at Pearl Harbor, 30 September 1923. She was converted as a receiving ship at the Naval Submarine Base of Pearl Harbor. She stayed there, solidly anchored to her pier until 1935. On 16 July 1928 her name was freed and she became USS Alton. At that point she was listed as the “unclassified miscellaneous unit” IX-5. She was eventually sold on 15 May 1936 but foundered in mid-Pacific, 8 July 1936 while under tow from Honolulu to San Francisco. She was thus never scrapped, but saw the keels laid down of the most formidable fleet the world had ever seen without the disgrace of being cut out, a fitting end for the largest, first modern warship of the “new navy”.

Read More/Src

Books

Gardiner, Robert; Chesneau, Roger (1979). Conway’s All the World’s Fighting Ships 1860–1905
Friedman, Norman (1984). U.S. Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History
Roberts, Stephen S. (1991). Register of Ships of the U.S. Navy, 1775–1990: Major Combatants.
Rentfrow, James C. Home Squadron: The U.S. Navy on the North Atlantic Station.
Spears, John Randolph. A History of the United States Navy. New York: C. Scribner’s Sons, 1908.
Taylor, Michael J.H. (1990). Jane’s Fighting Ships of World War I. Studio.
The White Squadron. Toledo, Ohio: Woolson Spice Co., 1891.

Links

https://web.archive.org/web/20030625235559/http://www.users.qwest.net/~robbd01/chicago.htm
http://www.navsource.org/archives/04/chicago/chicago.htm
hamptonroadsnavalmuseum.blogspot.com uss-chicago.html
https://www.history.navy.mil/content/history/nhhc/search.html?q=%22uss+chicago%22+%221889-1935%22
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Chicago_(1885)
https://www.navypedia.org/ships/usa/us_cr_chicago.htm
https://web.archive.org/web/20160906180027/http://www.usna.edu/
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:USS_Chicago_(ship,_1885)

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