Tirpitz was a pig captured from the Imperial German Navy after a naval skirmish (the Battle of Más a Tierra) following the Battle of the Falkland Islands in 1914. She became the mascot of the cruiser HMS Glasgow.
Pigs were often kept on board warships to supply fresh meat. Tirpitz was aboard SMS Dresden, when she was ordered into the South Atlantic to join with the forces of Vice Admiral Maximilian von Spee to raid Allied merchants. The ship's first encounter with HMS Glasgow was at the Battle of Coronel, where the German fleet was victorious. They were later defeated at the Battle of the Falkland Islands, though the faster Dresden managed to escape. She was located in Cumberland Bay on the Chilean island of Más a Tierra (today known as Robinson Crusoe Island), by HMS Glasgow and HMS Kent off the coast of South America on 15 March 1915. The Germans scuttled the ship, but Tirpitz was left on board as she sank.
Tirpitz was eventually auctioned off for charity as pork in 1919. She ultimately raised £1,785 for the British Red Cross.[3] Tirpitz was bought by William Cavendish-Bentinck, 6th Duke of Portland, who donated Tirpitz's stuffed head to the Imperial War Museum.[4][5] Tirpitz's head was put on display as part of the museum's original exhibition at The Crystal Palace in 1920,[4] and also featured in the museum's 2006 temporary exhibition 'The Animals' War'.[6]
Another of Tirpitz's legacies was bequeathed to the next HMS Glasgow, which retained a pair of silver mounted carvers made from Tirpitz's trotters.[7] These carvers were later also acquired by the Imperial War Museum.[8]