Chicago's Other German U-Boat, the UC-97.

We're all familiar with the World War II Nazi Germany U-505 submarine, which was captured by the U.S. Navy on June 4, 1944. The U-505 was donated to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago in 1954 and is still on public display.

This is the story of Chicago's other U-Boat, the UC-97. On June 7, 1921, the first explosive shells fired on the Great Lakes since Admiral Perry tangled with the British on Lake Erie in September of 1813 were directed toward the German U-Boat UC-97, sinking it in Lake Michigan about 20 miles east of Fort Sheridan, Illinois.

The UC-97 was one of six U-boats that the Navy received as part of the armistice agreement, which ended WW I on November 11, 1918. The UC-97 crossed the Atlantic in the spring of 1919 to participate in a ceremony in New York City that honored the victims of submarine attacks during the war.

Due to Engine problems, the UC-97 would be escorted from New York to Halifax, Canada by USS Bushnell (AS-2), and then handed off to the naval tugboat USS Iroquois (AT-46) for the remainder of its journey to the mouth of the Canadian controlled St. Lawrence canal system. It is through this system that UC-97 would reach the Great Lakes. 

WWI German subs, UB-88, UB-148, & UC-97, surrendered to the Allies in 1919.

Surrendered German U-boats were at the Brooklyn Navy Yard on April 29, 1919.

From there, it transited the Great Lakes until August when engine trouble laid it up at Municipal Pier, today's Navy Pier, in Chicago.

Inside a German WW I UC-Class Submarine.

The UC-97 spent the winter of 1920 on the North Branch of the Chicago River, where the U-boat received its post office address: Cherry Avenue and Weed Street (Today that would be at the north end of Goose Island, opposite the Whole Foods store on Kingsbury). 

For a time, the Navy considered a more permanent and dry change of address, perhaps giving the submarine to the Field Museum or putting it in Lincoln or Grant Park. Ultimately, the Navy decided that the terms of the armistice treaty required sinking its prize. The UC-97 was in no condition to go very far, so she was towed out into Lake Michigan to be used as a target on June 7, 1921, by the Navy reserve vessel USS Wilmette.

Ironically, the gunboat that sank the German UC-97 was the USS Wilmette which was a gunboat training ship for naval reservists. It was repaired and refitted from the Great Lakes passenger steamer, the SS Eastland, on which 844 people lost their lives when it turned over in the Chicago River on July 24, 1915.

The Navy made a big production out of sinking the UC-97. The first shot from one of Wilmette’s four 4-inch guns was fired by Gunner’s Mate J. O. Sabin, who had been credited with firing the first U.S. Navy shot in the Atlantic during WWI. The last shot was fired by Gunner’s Mate, A. H. Anderson, who had fired the first torpedo at a U-boat during the war. After being hit by 13 4-inch rounds of 18 fired, the UC-97 sank. The famous ship was then immediately forgotten for decades.

Photo of UC-97 as viewed in the monitor during the recovery expedition.

In August of 1992, salvage partners Taras Lyssenko and Al Olson of A and T Recovery located the submarine. It drifted considerably from where it went down, and for years no one could locate it. The costs of raising and restoring the submarine, which some estimate to be near 50 million dollars, along with the shaky legal question of who would have the legal rights to the sub when raised, have kept it at the bottom of the lake.

Size Comparison
The UC-97 measured 185 feet in length, weighed 491 tons while surfaced, and had a crew of 32. By comparison, the U-505, manufactured some 20 years later, was 252 feet long, weighed 1,120 tons, and had a crew of 59.

World War II Nazi Germany U-505 submarine.

The USS Seawolf, the Navy's latest generation, a nuclear-powered attack submarine, is near twice as long and weighs more than 16 times as much as the UC-97, with a crew complement of almost four times greater.

Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D. 

A Proposal to House the Entire 1893 World's Fair... within One Structure... on Lake Michigan!

The structure (tent-like) that architect Edward S. Jenison proposed for the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition would have had to be enormous to house the entire World’s Fair. Jenison must have taken Daniel Burnham’s recommendation to "make no little plans" literally.

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Galleries, 75 feet wide.
Entrances from outside only on first gallery.
Under first gallery six tracks for railroad exhibits.
First gallery a grand boulevard for driveway, cafes, etc., etc.
Second gallery for race track 1 3/4 miles long.
Twenty-four stairways from first gallery down to main floor.
Grand Canal, 150 feet wide, with 24 bridges.
Picture galleries in fire-proof vaults under high part of amphitheater.
Amphitheater in center, 600 feet in diameter, 60,000 seats.

Jenison’s round, tent-like structure would have been 3,000 feet wide – that’s just over 1/2  mile. The center steel tower 1,492 feet high (the year Christopher Columbus landed in North America) with an elevator leading to an observatory at 1,000 feet. That’s only 8 feet shorter than the John Hancock Building's highest antenna tip!

Cables radiating from the center mast to a three-story-high brick wall would support the glass and corrugated iron roof encompassing over 160 acres. An amphitheater around the center pole would seat 60,000 people.

Interior Illustration

And it wasn’t just the size and height that was ambitious. Jenison planned for the whole thing to be built, not on land, but in the lake near the shoreline off Jackson Park and supported on submerged piles. Water would be drawn up through the central tower and distributed over the roof to keep the building cool. He also included plans for an interior canal for a naval exhibit. Railroad exhibits would run on six tracks around the inter-perimeter of the building.

The green circle is exactly 3000 feet in diameter.

Architect Jenison estimates that his building would cost $6,000,000. But in reality, it would come closer to $20,000,000 in the 1890s (that's $553,779,150 in today's dollars).

Tim Samuelson, the City of Chicago's Cultural Affairs and Special Events Coordinator was familiar with this plan. He describes it as a “pipe dream” that captured a lot of people’s imagination. Jenison proposed it in the spring of 1890 when planning for the Fair actually began.

Engineering experts questioned whether it was even possible to build it. Some said that in theory, it might be, but most architects believed that the technology wasn’t available yet.

As for the architect, in Tim Samuelson’s words, Jenison was probably kind of “out there.” He monopolized at least one committee meeting with his idea, and one Fair planner stated, “Mr. Jenison calls at headquarters daily.”

Ultimately, Jenison’s plan was rejected when fair Officials decided to build the World's Fair on land in Jackson Park rather than in Lake Michigan.

It was deemed that a building like this would never satisfy exhibitors. as most would want to build their own structures. It would not show exhibits to the best advantage, would mix things up in an incongruous manner—artworks, statues, machinery, goods, locomotives, thrashing machines, and bric-a-brac, etc., that would distract, confuse, and tire the visitors.

George B. Post’s Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building
at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition.

But the Columbian Exposition still managed to create the largest building in the world at the time: the colossus Manufacturers and Liberal Arts Building, designed by George B. Post.

Compiled by Neil Gale, Ph.D.