Cat Mascot of USS Maine's Mess Cooks, Martyr for Animal Rights- 1896

USS Maine's mess cooks and their feline mascot (click image to enlarge).

This is an 1896 picture of the Norfolk-based battleship USS Maine's (BB-2/c) mess cooks. Navy photographer Edward H. Hart took this picture, along with several other images of the battleship company. Hart worked for the Detroit Publishing Company and produced several dozen images of the U.S. Navy sailors between the 1880s and World War I. He was with the Atlantic Squadron off the coast of Cuba during the Spanish-American War.

In the middle of this photo, a sailor is holding a long-haired grey cat. According to sources, this cat was one of three feline mascots (along with a pug named Peggie) that kept the sailors company on board Maine. When the ship exploded on February 14, 1898, two hundred sixty-six of the ship's sailors were killed along with two of three cats. The one cat who survived became a national hero among animal rights activists.

Among these activists was Mrs. Charles Sigsbee, wife of Maine's commanding officer when the ship exploded. Mrs. Sigsbee recalled in an article for Human Advocate (a publication of the Illinois Humane Association) that, "Tom [the cat] was wounded in one foot feeling very blue indeed, with his favorite sleeping place destroyed, no friendly hands to minister to his wants and nothing but ruin and water on every side!" Commander Richard Wainwright, Maine's executive officer, found Tom and adopted him for his own.

Tom, the only one of Maine's cats who survived the
1898 explosion. According to one account, the photographer
had to give Tom a whole fish before he would stand properly
for the photo. He and his fellow Maine cats became
national heroes for animal rights. 

As for the other two cats, including the one pictured with the ship's mess cooks, they became martyrs for the emerging animal rights movement in the United States. In a pro-cat book published by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), the author lauded the two cats who died for their country: "The love of cats by sailors and soldiers is well known. In the dreadful explosion of the Maine in Havana, two of the three cats perished."

Such praise for sailors was common. Animal rights groups like the ASPCA frequently used the Navy and its sailors for their humane treatment of animals as a model for the rest of the United States.

Ship Models of USS Guadalcanal and Pillsbury Capturing U-505

The Escort Carrier Sailors and Airmen Association recently donated this large diorama depicting the celebrated capture of the German submarine U-505 by a Norfolk-based hunter/killer group. In this diorama are the escort carrier USS Guadalcanal (CVE-60) with her air wing, the destroyer escort USS Pillsbury (DE-133), and the type IX U-boat U-505. It is currently on display in the museum's Battle of the Atlantic gallery.


The Association has donated ship models and dioramas to several museums and historic sites to educate the public about the role of the U.S. Navy's escort carriers and their air wings in World War II. This model is the second model the Association has donated to HRNM. In 2009, it donated a model of USS Santee (CVE-29).

Captain Daniel Gallery, commanding
officer of Guadalcanal, is shown on
U-505's tower.

The capture of U-505 is considered to be one of the U.S. Navy's greatest moments in its history. During World War II, the U.S. Navy succeeded in sinking several U-boats during the Battle of the Atlantic, but never captured one. Guadalcanal and her five escorts Pillsbury, Pope (DE-134), Flaherty (DE-135), Chatelain (DE-149), and Jenks (DE-665) left Norfolk on May 15, 1944, with the intent of capturing one.

The group detected and forced U-505 to the surface near the Cape Verde Islands on June 4. A boarding team from Pillsbury stormed aboard U-505 and secured the boat from sinking. The team not only secured the boat, but also seized several dozen classified documents, including code books. A more detailed account of the action can be found at our parent command's website.

After the war, the Navy donated U-505 to the City of Chicago, where she is on display at the Museum of Science and Industry.

The Navy and Norfolk Come to Blows Over Illegal Drinking, 1931

The battleship USS Mississippi (BB-40) arrived at Norfolk Naval Shipyard in 1931 for a two-year modernization overhaul. As the ship would be laid up for an extended period of time, sailors had a bit more liberty time than normally allowed. 

USS Mississippi at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, 1933

Thus it came to the attention of Captain Henry Brinser, Mississippi's commanding officer, that an unusual number of the battleship's sailors were being arrested by the City of Norfolk police for patronizing illegal speakeasies. Even worse, Brinser was informed that the speakeasies had been aggressively marketing to his sailors with advertising cards. Noticing that the Norfolk police were more interested in arresting sailors than in shutting down the illegal drinking establishments, Brinser went public with the problem. Completely ignoring his own chain-of-command, Brinser informed the local papers about the situation. 

He stated he had previously been "warned about conditions existing in Norfolk adversely affecting the service of the Norfolk personnel." He also stated that within six hours of Mississippi docking in Hampton Roads, the ship's company knew where to go drinking. He further accused the Norfolk police of targeting sailors for entrapment. Though Brinser did not check with senior leadership before making such serious charges, Rear Admiral Guy Burrage, the Navy's senior shore officer for Hampton Roads, essentially agreed with the captain. He noted that the Navy, and not local police, had to shut down speakeasies located near

Walke Truxtun, city manger
 of Norfolk in 1931 and
great-grandson of

Commodore Thomas Truxtun

Naval facilities. It had been local Navy policy since 1918 that no drinking estasblishment be allowed within five miles of a Hampton Roads naval facility.

Henry Brinser, commanding

officer of Mississippi in 1931

Burrage and Brinser's accusations were serious charges that threatened the important relationship between the City of Norfolk and the region's largest employer. Since the building of the naval base in 1918, Norfolk attempted to foster the relationship more closely by placing men with Navy backgrounds in high leadership positions. A case-in-point was Walke Truxtun, the city manager at this time. He was a World War I veteran of the Navy and came from a family of senior Naval officers. His father was William Truxtun, one time commandant of the Norfolk Navy Yard and veteran of the Civil War, and his great-grandfather was the legendary Commodore Thomas Truxtun.

Acting shocked and outraged by the accusations, Truxtun demanded to know from both Burrage and Brinser where they got such information. Promising a full investigation into police corruption, he noted that "only 35 sailors" were currently in Norfolk jails for Volstead Act violations. This promise was not good enough for the Navy. Burrage threatened to declare much of Norfolk "out of bounds" for sailors.

Congressman Menalcus
Lankford (R-VA)

The controversy reached the desks of senior Naval leadership in Washington. Rear Admiral John Halligan, assistant chief of naval operations, stated to reporters that there was no need for Washington to get involved and that the Department had full confidence in Burrage to do as he saw fit. Seeing that the Navy's higher-ups were not going to intervene, Congressman Menalcus Lankford (R-VA) arrived from Washington to meditate. Norfolk represented a large portion of Lankford's district and he no doubt saw local economical repercussions of a rift with the Navy.

Lankford's intervention succeeded in cooling down tempers. Truxtun agreed to investigate the alleged police corruption and end the harassment of sailors. He also agreed to a Navy demand that if Norfolk police arrested any sailor on a misdemeanor charge, they would turn the sailor over to the Navy for trial through Navy justice.