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| Animal Mascots: 1914 - 1930s |
No animal mascots were aboard during World War II.
This was the response from 30 BB35 veterans to a 1986 questionnaire
from the Junior Historians, at Johnston Middle School, in Houston
| Ursa | ||
| While in Galveston, 6 - 14 November 1914, BB35
received her first animal mascot. Texaco presented Ursa, a West Texas brown bear cub, on 9 November. Do not know how long the cub remained aboard. Ursa was the name of a Texaco lubricant that was used aboard BB35 and is still made today. Texaco is an abbreviation for "The Texas Company". Photo from the the 1915 second quarter publication "TEXACO STAR". |
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| Buster and Queenie |
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Next came the pair of Buster
and Queenie, Boston Bull Terriers. As you can see, they started a
family aboard BB35. Best estimate of their coming aboard is 1915. When
Queenie left is unknown. Buster was listed as a deserter, in Jan 1917,
when TEXAS sailed from New York City to Puerto Rico.
Two photos are courtesy of Ed Williams  |
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| JIM | ||
| 4 December 1918, TEXAS
arrived in Portland, England from Firth of Forth, Scotland. During the brief stay in Portland, Jim's
6-year-old English owner, Mr. Lloyd Adams, gave him to the ship. His
Uncle Randolph, a Captain in the Veterinary Corps, brought Jim home from
Flanders. Mr. Adams provided the photo, in 1999. Jim had complete run of
the ship and was a frequent attendee at ship functions. Jim was aboard
at least through July 1923. A large oil painting of Jim was presented to BB35, from British Admiral Beatty. Today, the painting is in the BB35 Ward Room. At the bottom read more about Jim in the June 1957 "The American Mercury". Written by Paul Schubert, he was a TEXAS officer from July 1919 to July 1923. |
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| Paddy |
Unfortunately, I do not have any information about Paddy.
From the small amount of ship' structure in the images best estimate
date is before the 1925-1926 modernization.
Photos are courtesy of Ed Williams.
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| Rex | ||
| In 1920 and 1921 there was Rex |
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| Tessie the Cat and Pittsburg the Dog |
| Tessie The 4 April 1931 issue of the ship's newspaper (The TEXAS Steer")(in San Diego, California) reports the ship's cat Tessie gave birth to three kittens. Tessie chose the seclusion of being underneath the safe where confidential publications are stored. Tessie was acquired, in the fall of 1930, while the ship was in New York. As of the printing, two kittens were adopted. One of the adopters was the Junior Officer's Mess. | Pittsburg:
The same 4 April 1931 article about Tessie mentioned the Aviation
Department had a dog named Pittsburgh. To keep the dog's attention
focused away from Tessie, he was regularly supplied with tennis balls. |
| Maggie |
| In 1931, while in San Pedro (port for Los
Angeles), a little white dog was acquired from the city dog pound and
named Maggie. Like Jim, Maggie was a regular attendee of ship functions.
The 12 December 1931 weekly printing of the BB35 newspaper "TEXAS
Steer", reported Maggie (who was pregnant) chose the Brig to give birth.
Two crewmembers confined to the Brig were assigned to be Maggie's
hospital orderlies. The story of Maggie rated more words then all other
stories. Tom Scott captured the image from a digital conversion he made of 45minutes of film footage shot aboard TEXAS, in Dec 1931 |
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| Unknown Dog and Cat |
Mid-1930s TEXAS cruise book. No information accompanies the photo but the image is wonderful.
The photo is courtesy of Jack Platt, a long
time TEXAS volunteer
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| JIM - June 1957 "American Mercury" |
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Started 11 May 1999 Chuck Moore, FTV (1st Texas Volunteers) BB35 volunteer group