No, actually I hadn't - and if any friend of the Museum knows a little more about him, I'm all ears! I have not been able to track anything about this little WWI hero who was secreted in a ship's bass drum all the way to Liverpool. His story began in Mexico in 1916, where he was adopted as a puppy by US soldiers looking for Pancho Villa. The regiment took their new friend to Fort Myer in Virginia that year (which is how I deduce this must have been the 12th Field Artillery Regiment), and then smuggled him aboard their ship transport to France:
* * *
How to get one little dog across the sea was an absorbing question with Jack’s friends, until some one suggested putting him into a bass drum. So into the bass drum went the little dog, with orders to keep still.
On the day of embarkation many a young soldier kept his spirits up by the thought of Jack hiding in the bass drum, when he might have been sadly depressed, thinking of loved ones he was leaving behind and might never see again.
Like a good soldier, Jack obeyed orders without asking questions. He may have heard the captain in charge of his battery solemnly tell the ship’s officers that no animals had come on board with the men of his command. . . At last the ship’s officers found out that there was a dog on board their ship. They searched for the little fellow and, before the voyage was ended, Jack had tried all the hiding places known to stowaways of his family. Ship’s officers and sailors were continually saying, “Where is that dog?” But they never found him. When eleven or twelve hundred American soldiers are united in their determination to hide the regimental dog, that pet is not likely to be caught.
* * *
How to get one little dog across the sea was an absorbing question with Jack’s friends, until some one suggested putting him into a bass drum. So into the bass drum went the little dog, with orders to keep still.
On the day of embarkation many a young soldier kept his spirits up by the thought of Jack hiding in the bass drum, when he might have been sadly depressed, thinking of loved ones he was leaving behind and might never see again.
Like a good soldier, Jack obeyed orders without asking questions. He may have heard the captain in charge of his battery solemnly tell the ship’s officers that no animals had come on board with the men of his command. . . At last the ship’s officers found out that there was a dog on board their ship. They searched for the little fellow and, before the voyage was ended, Jack had tried all the hiding places known to stowaways of his family. Ship’s officers and sailors were continually saying, “Where is that dog?” But they never found him. When eleven or twelve hundred American soldiers are united in their determination to hide the regimental dog, that pet is not likely to be caught.
* * *
By the time he chased Black Jack Pershing's horse, Jack the dog's position was unassailable, luckily for him.
- The whole story can be found in Fox, F. Margaret. (1927). Uncle Sam's animals: by Frances Margaret Fox. New York: The Century Co 141-7.
By the time he chased Black Jack Pershing's horse, Jack the dog's position was unassailable, luckily for him.
- The whole story can be found in Fox, F. Margaret. (1927). Uncle Sam's animals: by Frances Margaret Fox. New York: The Century Co 141-7.
