Mare Island Mystery — Where’s Navy Ant-Eater Buried?
Nothing like a good graveyard mystery now that Halloween is approaching: Exactly where in the Mare Island Cemetery is the unmarked grave of “Mike” the ant-eater, mascot of the crew of the Navy gunboat USS Bennington more than a century ago?
Mike was buried with honors in the cemetery after being killed on Mare Island on Sept. 9, 1905, “by an unknown miscreant known as a human being,” the San Francisco Call reported. “Resentment for the deed kindles in the bosoms of the navy and if they find the man who robbed them of their pet it will go hard against him.”
“Mike was the great pet of the Bennington’s crew. In dark days and in the happy ones, he was always a fun provoker.”
“The sailors of the Bennington resolved to give Mike a fine burial,” the newspaper reported. “At first permission could only be obtained for two men to make up the funeral procession, but with the return of Captain (Lucien) Young the entire crew followed the little procession of mourners.”
“Mike lies buried with other heroes on Mare Island. A headstone marks his last resting place. Like a true sailor, he was honored until the last.”
In Mare Island Cemetery 1856-1921, a two-volume account compiled by Peggy O’Drain and Joyce Giles, the news story is included along with a note that Mike’s headstone has
been missing for years. The authors also mentioned that the ship’s mascot was described by the newspaper as an ant-eating bear. That led to speculation that Bennington sailors had a bear on board their ship, but O’Drain and Giles wrote that there are other references to the mascot being an ant-eater.
Also, the authors noted that the Spanish name for an ant-eater is “Oso hormiguero” and the direct
translation for that term is ant-eating bear. The ship’s mascot may have been brought aboard the gunboat during Pacific duty that included extended cruising and port stops along the coast of Central and South America.
The 244-foot gunboat, with a complement of nearly 200 officers and enlisted men, arrived in San Diego on July 19, 1905, and two days later was preparing to steam to the aid of another ship that had broken down and needed a tow. But excessive steam pressure built up, resulting in a massive boiler explosion that killed 66 men and injured 46 others — one of the Navy’s worst peacetime disasters.
“After the terrible accident in San Diego Bay, Mike, escaping unhurt, sniffed and whined in mournful appeal for his dead friends to rise again,” the Call article stated, adding the ship’s pet Angora cat was killed “but Mike was spared.”
Following the explosion, the ship was towed toward the beach to keep it from sinking. After temporary repairs, the Bennington was towed to Mare Island for more work. But because of the extent of the damage and the age of the ship, launched in 1890, it was decommissioned the following October and sold for scrap five years later.
Mike wasn’t the only anteater that came to a bad end after being adopted as a Navy ship’s mascot. In another newspaper story about dogs, cats, monkeys, parrots, canaries, pigeons, rabbits, pigs, goats and other creatures that wound up as mascots, a sailor was quoted as saying he served on a battleship that had an ant-eater on board for a few weeks — “but he was a messy sort of creature and one morning we found he had disappeared during the night. Nobody ever told but we all suspected that somebody had thrown him overboard.”
Then there’s the newspaper story about Henry, anteater mascot of the USS Utah in the early 1930s that “wabbled on land for shore leave” in San Francisco, with sailors Walter Ginter and Arthur Campbell. “In a Market Street restaurant, Henry took a liking to waitress Sally McClean,” according to the UPI account. “She screamed when Henry insisted on rubbing his nose against her check.”
Army soldiers Frank Martin and Joseph Jordan “rescued Sally and tied Henry to a table. To the sailors, this was equivalent to treating Henry ‘like a dog.’ The Army and Navy clashed,” according to the UPI report. “Ginter and Campbell were arrested. When Sally told the judge about it, he released the prisoners, but sentenced Henry to ‘hold his tongue — and peace.’”
Getting back to ant-eater Mike of the Bennington and his unknown whereabouts in the Mare Island Cemetery, somewhere in my evergrowing pile of notes and e-mails about ideas for history columns there’s one from someone claiming to know the location of his grave. If that person reads this, please share the information so that this curious case can be closed.
Vallejo and other Solano County communities are treasure troves of earlyday California history.
The “Solano Chronicles” column, running every other Sunday, highlights various aspects of that history. My source references are available upon request. If you have local stories or photos to share, email me at genoans@hotmail.com. You can also send any material care of the TimesHerald, 420 Virginia St.; or the Vallejo Naval and Historical Museum, 734 Marin St., Vallejo 94590.