Topic starter
26/04/2011 9:04 pm
From a thread on the Railway Preservation web site...
The Olympia, the Navy battle cruiser which lead the fleet into Manila Bay during the Spanish American War is to be sunk.
Built in San Francisco, now in "Preserved" in Philadelphia... or not preserved...
A large complex industrial artifact... costly to maintain...
The preservation is not keeping up... the group holding the artifact is feeling overwhelmed.
They are considering sinking the now roughly 120 year old ship as a reef... As preservation as compared to scrapping...
27/04/2011 5:03 am
The Olympia is in great condition--except for her hull. To sink her will be criminal. It would be the same as sinking the USS Constitution--both boat/ships are as significant to the US development as a world power country. In order to move her to sink her, she has to be made to be floatable--that effort would be better put to placing her in a safe place ABOVE water.
Part of the problem is the 'preserving' museum, which has had some very questionable management.
We lost the effort to save the MQ, maybe we can put some effort towards saving the Olympia?
Steamcerely,
David Dewey--distance cousin of Admiral Dewey (true)
27/04/2011 8:12 am
The link is a year old. Does anybody know the current status of her?
27/04/2011 8:29 pm
*RE: Fate of USS OLYMPIA*
Steamboat [And steamship] colleagues:
Thanks for this thread on the USS OLYMPIA. David, I often wondered if you possibly could be related to the famed Admiral Dewey and you nailed it. I've a fine book done years ago on the life of Admiral Dewey printed in limited edition by Murat Halstead of Cincinnati and close friend of Mark Twain. Halstead also did another limited book on the history of the Spanish American War. I saw the brass foot marks on the deck exactly where Dewey stood in command at Manila Bay saying, "You may fire when ready Gridley." OLYMPIA was built 1892 by the 'Union Iron Works' in San Francisco. The ship also had the distinction of carrying the body of an Unknown Soldier from France to the U.S. in 1921 for internment at Arlington Cemetery.
Another near contemporary in years to the OLYMPIA is the battle cruiser AURORA built for the Imperial Russian Navy and now still on the 'books' as a museum in St. Petersburg, Russia where I saw her several years ago. All in top pristine condition manned by honorary naval cadets as guards. AURORA saw duty in the Russo-Japanese War at the battle of the Straits of Tsushima in addition to firing on the Imperial Russian Winter Palace by the Bolsheviks in 1917 being repaired and in operating condition until on/around 1955. Ah, so many boats/ships and so little money or time. I wish the OLYMPIA well. Not totally 'pure steamboats' but both ships very big steamboats.
R. Dale Flick
Coal Haven Landing, Ohio River, Cincinnati
27/04/2011 9:31 pm
Dale: Nearly forty years since I've been on the OLYMPIA, and, yeah, I remember the "footprints" well. I also seem to remember that from the officer's mess you could view the tops of the "steeple" steam engines thru inside windows to the engine room. I don't remember but those may have been tripple expansion engines. Would love to see the lower part. Did they also have a submarine there too on display? This would have been in the mid to late sixties. Cap'n Walnut