PLEASE SEE THE OTHER TWO DIFFERENT VERSIONS OF THIS GAME I AM LISTING -- THIS IS TYPE 1

For your consideration is the Educational Card Game WHITE SQUADRON published in 1898 by the FIRESIDE GAME CO. (# 1108).  While the copyright date on the cover and on the directions card is 1896, the 1898 date is likely the correct one since some of the ships pictured were not launched until that year.  

The Fireside Game Company published at least three versions of this card game.  I am labeling this version as TYPE I because all of the ships listed were launched in 1898 or earlier.  The one exception is the Reina Mercedes (D-1), a Spanish Cruiser that was sunk in Santiago Harbor on July 4, 1898, salvaged by the U.S. Navy, and then transported to the Norfolk Navy Yard to be refurbished.  This is likely the earliest version of the game (at least the earliest I have been able to identify) and is unusual because it is, to the best of my knowledge, the only quartette deck published by Fireside that was comprised of 14 sets of 4 cards instead of the usual 13.

The naval vessels included in the deck are (The ships whose names are in italics appear only in this version of the game):

A: Wisconsin, Alabama, Illinois, Maine                                                                              

B: Kentucky, Kearsarge, Oregon, Iowa                                                          

C: Massachusetts, Indiana, Texas, Brooklyn                                                 

D: Reina Mercedes, New York, Minneapolis, Columbia                                 

E: Olympia, Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia                                                     

F: San Francisco, Buffalo, Newark, New Orleans                                                             

G: Cincinnati, Raleigh, Boston, Atlanta                                                       

H: Detroit, Montgomery, Marblehead, Vesuvius                                      

I: Katahdin, Puritan, Monterey, Terror                                                          

J: Amphitrite, Nantucket, Miantonomoh, Dolphi

K: Stilletto, Ericsson, Cushing, Porter                                                          

L: Du Pont, Mackenzie, Winslow, Gwin

M: Yorktown, Concord, Bennington, Helena                                                 

N: Nashville, Castine, Machias, Bancroft

The ships that appear in the later White Squadron versions but not here are the Charleston, St. Louis, St, Paul and Harvard.  I believe there were other versions of the game that included different sets of ships.


The game is complete with all 56 cards (4 cards each in 13 suits, A-N), and a Directions for Playing card that is pasted down inside the box cover.  The cards measure 2-1/2 inches by 3-1/2 inches.  

For about five decades I have been collecting the educational games produced by The Fireside Game Company of Cincinnati, Ohio their successor company, The Cincinnati Game Company, their parent company The United States Playing Card Company, and the re-issues of the games by Parker Brothers.  I have amassed a near complete set of these games (including some of the rarest) and, over the coming weeks, will be selling the entire collection, starting with the earliest.

CONDITION: Complete with 56 cards,  all of which are in very good condition: gently rubbed and lightly soiled.  The Directions for Playing card is pasted down inside the box cover; it is rubbed and soiled.  The original box top is lacking one long apron.  The cover is rubbed and soiled.  The box bottom is fully intact.   PLEASE MOUSE OVER THE PHOTOGRAPHS FOR CONDITION DETAILS.