November 30, 1951 – At a meeting of the Irish Fellowship Club of Chicago at
the Morrison Hotel proposals are put forth to bring the only Nazi submarine
ever captured at sea to Chicago. The
plans have the United States Navy towing the U-505 from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where it is anchored, to
Chicago, where it will be placed on a foundation near Buckingham Fountain. Jack Foster, a naval reserve officer, tells
the crowd that a Chicagoan, Admiral Dan Gallery, commanded the anti-submarine
task force that captured the German U-boat and its top-secret codes and that
makes Chicago the appropriate final resting place for the captured sub. The head of the Irish Fellowship Club, Dunne
Corboy, appoints an engineering consultant to head a committee that will study
the proposal. The new effort comes after
the Science Museum in Hyde Park gives up its efforts, citing the prohibitive
costs involved in the operation. The
U-505 finally comes to Chicago in September of 1954, as a result of a renewed
effort on the part of the museum. The photo above shows the U-boat just east of Michigan Avenue as it arrived it the city in 1954.
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