officers and 850 men. In early 1911 the ship was fitted with a
wooden platform 120 feet long and 30 feet wide for an attempt at landing a
plane on a ship. On January 18, 1911
Eugene Ely landed his Curtis pusher biplane on the Pennsylvania, the first airplane
landing on a ship. The future was
obvious and in time the carrier would become the backbone of naval power.

The
Pennsylvania was renamed the USS Pittsburg on August 27, 1912 to free up the
name USS Pennsylvania for a newer and bigger battleship. For the rest of her service life, the ship
was designated ACR-4 USS Pittsburgh. The
ship was decommissioned July 10, 1931, used for bombing practice, and then sold
for scrap. The story told by our
mysterious photo involves the activities of the USS Pittsburg in the year1918. That was the year of the great influenza
pandemic, the “Spanish Flu” which swept the world through 1920 and killed at
least 50 million.

The
Spanish Flu had made its first appearance in Rio de Janeiro in mid September of
1918. In October the Pittsburgh docked
there. The ship’s captain, George
“Blackjack” Bradshaw, knowing of the epidemic in the city, allowed working
parties to go ashore and gave liberty to many crewmembers. The Pittsburgh at
that time was also the flagship for rear admiral William Caperton who wrote
about the sickness on board. Admiral
Caperton, writing to the Fleet Surgeon about the crew of
the Pittsburgh said, “On Board
the ship the sick list reached a total of 663 (which was 80% of the crew on
board), with a final death toll of 58. The efforts of all hands were devoted
solely