USS Chicago as built, with 3-mast sailing rig. Click here to enlarge.
The Chicago, the "C" in the ABCD class, was a 4500-ton steel cruiser with light armor -- a protected cruiser, relying on an internal armored deck rather than vertical side armor on the hull. She was built at Roach's Philadelphia yard, which had been responsible for so many badly-jobbed Navy vessels in the 1870s. Launched in 1885 and commissioned almost four years later despite Roach's bankruptcy and the ensuing smelly financial mess, Chicago carried four 8" BL guns, eight 6", two 5", and smaller calibres. She was originally barque-rigged, spreading 14,000 sf of sail, and saved the taxpayer quite a bit on coal during her first six years of operation by maneuvering under sail with the other ships of the ABCD squadron. Her engines were an archaic horizontal compound model incorporating a walking beam, known as overhead-beam propeller engines, giving her 14 knots speed when new. For protection, she had an armored deck fortified with nickel-steel armor up to 4 inches thick over the magazines and engineering spaces. The ship was completely illuminated with Edison electric lighting, the last word in modernity in the 1880s, and was constructed with elaborate watertight subdivision.
Painted gleaming white with buff funnels and upperworks, the so-called "Squadron of Evolution" was despatched to Europe to boast of America's naval resurgence in late 1889, with the Chicago serving as flagship. The ships caught the imagination of the Mediterranean public, gaining yet another nickname: the White Squadron. Following their European tour, the ships of the squadron were ordered to the Atlantic coast of Latin America for extended crusing. Arriving at Hampton Roads, Chicago began preparation for the first-ever invitational naval exercises to be held off the U.S. eastern seaboard in April 1893. At this gala event, she served as the U.S. flagship. As a ceremonial highlight of the event, President Grover Cleveland reviewed 35 assembled warships from Britian, the Netherlands, Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, and the U.S. from the deck of the USS Dolphin. Later, as flagship of the U.S. European Squadron, Chicago cruised the Mediterranean, Baltic, and North Seas under the command of the great naval historian Capt. Alfred Thayer Mahan in 1893-5.
Often acting as the flagship with the ABCD group, the Chicago was instrumental in maneuvers and war games in which the officers of the New Navy practiced their moves and formulated their wish lists for the next generation of naval technology -- the Olympia, New York, and Brooklyn, and America's first generation of modern battleships.
Despite her archaic beginning as a hybrid sailing ship, Chicago made a workmanlike enough modern cruiser when her square rig was removed in the mid-1890s. Also in this 1896-8 refit, the ship was re-engined with modern triple expansion steam engines and Babcock & Wilcox water-tube boilers. Her speed subsequently increased by a full four knots. Because of this extensive refit, Chicago was out of commission during the excitement of July 1898, but was recommissioned and sent back to the European Squadron during the jubilee year of 1903. She led a long and useful life as a training ship for the Massachusetts and Pennsylvania state naval militias from 1910 through 1917, then was recommissioned in the Pacific cruiser fleet 1917-18. She eked out her last years as a sub tender at Pearl Harbor before being decommissioned and hulked in 1923. She was renamed USS Alton at this time. She was serving as Hulk IX-5 at Pearl as the Depression engulfed the land, and was sold to shipbreakers from San Francisco at mid-decade. On her way to the boneyard, fully loaded with scrap metal, Chicago broke tow and foundered in heavy weather 300 miles east of Honolulu, leaving us in July 1936.
Specifications for the Chicago<:
Dimensions: 342'2" OA* x 48'2" x 22'7". Displacement: 4,500 tons. Armament: (4) 8"/30 Mk III BLR, (8) 6"/35 BLR, (2) 5" BLR, (2) 6-pdr Hotchkiss RF, and (2) 45 mm Gatling 1-pdr guns. Changed in 1894 refit to (4) 8" and (14) 5" as shown in schematic. Armor: Nickel-steel type. Gun shields/sponsons 4", conning tower 3", deck 4"/1½". Fuel capacity: 870 tons of coal. Propulsion: (2) horizontal compound overhead-beam propeller engines developing 5,000 hp; twin screw; (1896-8 refit) (4) B&W boilers, (2) inverted vertical triple-expansion engines. Speed: 14 kts; after 1898 re-engining, 18 kts. Sail rig: 3-mast barque spreading 14,000 sf of sail, replaced with 2-mast military rig 1896. Crew: 409 officers and men. *17 feet (5.2 m) shorter after her bowsprit was removed.
Metric Specifications:
Dimensions: 104.3m OA x 15m x 6.9m. Displacement: 4,500 tons. Armament: (4) 203 mm/30 Mk III BLR, (8) 152 mm/35 BLR, (2) 125 mm BLR, (2) 47 mm 6-pdr Hotchkiss RF, and (2) 37 mm Gatling 1-pdr guns. Changed in 1894 refit to (4) 203 mm and (14) 125 mm as shown in schematic above. Armor: Nickel-steel type. Gun shields/sponsons 102 mm, conning tower 76 mm, deck 102/38 mm. Fuel capacity: 870 tons of coal. Propulsion: (2) horizontal compound overhead-beam propeller engines developing 3,729 kW; twin screw. (1896-8 refit) (4) B&W boilers, (2) inverted vertical triple-expansion engines. Speed: 25.9 km/hr; post-1898 refit, 33.3 km/hr. Sail rig: 3-mast barque spreading 1,301 m2 of sail, replaced with 2-mast military rig 1896. Crew: 409 officers and men.
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