Date: Thu, 28 Dec 1995 14:07:11 -0500
X-Sender: jcarstan@capecod.net (Unverified)
To: Robbd@primenet.com
From: jcarstan@capecod.net (Jan H. Carstanjen)
Subject: USS Chicago

Hello there shipmate- Enjoyed reading the information on Chicago and
look forward to its completion. We were on the Chicago together during
her last year.  I was the Supply Officer.
I recently received some info on our ship from the U.S. Navy Cruiser
Sailors Assoc. which may be of interest to you when you write the final
chapter of the "surface" Chicagos.  This is taken from the Bellingham
Herald, March 18, 1993, in an article written by Scott Ayers. In 1986
the USS Chicago Foundation was formed to bring the cruiser from Puget
Sound NSY to Chicago for display at that city's Navy Pier.  They soon
realized that the ship was too rusted and would require major
renovations. They decided they couldn't afford the tow from the West
Coast to the Great Lakes and the idea was scrapped and so was Chicago.
But, if they couldn't get the ship they wanted the anchor. In 1990 Navy
officials agreed to donate the anchor to the city of Chicago but a year
later it was still sitting in Bremerton.  Enter Bill Emley, the port's
maintenance manager.  He found the anchor at the Bremerton scrap yard and
decided it would be perfect to secure the drydock behind the Maritime
Contractors Inc. shipyard in Fairhaven.  It had been in place about a
year when he began receiving calls saying the anchor was promised to
Chicago. Problem was that nobody had any funds to pull it up so he
organized a project with volunteers to raise the anchor.  The Metro Pier
and Exposition Authority in Chicago will pay $2,000 to have the anchor
hauled to Illinois. The Navy Pier was expected to be completed a year ago
so hopefully the last major remaining part of "The World's Greatest
Guided Missile Cruiser" is now firmly in place.  Even if this isn't
strictly part of the CG-11 history I hope that it will have been of some
interest.  All the best, Jan