Article on other languages:
 |
del.icio.us |
 |
Digg |
 |
Furl |
 |
|
 |
Rojo |
| Add to OnlyWire |
 USS Olympia at the Independence Seaport Museum in 2007 |
|
| Career (U.S.) |  |
|---|---|
| Name: | USS Olympia |
| Namesake: | Olympia, Washington |
| Ordered: | 7 September 1888 |
| Builder: | Union Iron Works San Francisco, California |
| Laid down: | 17 June 1891 |
| Launched: | 5 November 1892 |
| Sponsored by: | Miss Ann B. Dickie |
| Commissioned: | 5 February 1895 |
| Decommissioned: | 9 December 1922 |
| Reclassified: | CA-15, 17 July 1921 CL-15, 8 August 1921 IX-40, 30 June 1931 |
| Fate: | Museum ship |
| General characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 5,586 tons |
| Length: | 344 ft 1 in (104.9 m) |
| Beam: | 53 ft 0.625 in (16.1703 m) |
| Draft: | 21 ft 6 in (6.6 m) |
| Propulsion: | vertical triple-expansion steam engine twin screw propellors |
| Speed: | 20 knots (37 km/h) |
| Range: | 13,000 nautical miles (24,000 km) |
| Complement: | 33 officers and 395 enlisted men |
| Armament: | 4 × 8-inch (200 mm), 35-caliber breech-loading rifles 10 × 5-inch (130 mm), 40-caliber rapid-fire guns 14 × 6-pounder guns 6 × 1-pounder guns 4 × Gatling guns 6 × 18-inch (460 mm) Whitehead above-surface torpedo tubes |
USS Olympia (C-6/CA-15/CL-15/IX-40) was a protected cruiser in the United States Navy during the Spanish-American War. She is most notable for being the flagship of Commodore George Dewey at the Battle of Manila Bay. The cruiser continued in service throughout World War I and was decommissioned in 1922. As of 2008, Olympia is a museum ship at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Contents |
Design and construction
Olympia was laid down 17 June 1891 by Union Iron Works, San Francisco, California; launched 5 November 1892; sponsored by Miss Ann B. Dickie; and commissioned 5 February 1895, Captain John Joseph Read in command. She was built in a transitional period for warship design and for the US Navy. The Navy was expanding is fleet to move beyond coastal defense onto the world stage. Olympia was larger and faster than the previous generation of Navy ships, built with a new type of vertical triple-expansion steam engine. Yet she retained a vestigial suite of sails for emergency propulsion. She was one of the first naval ships to have electricity and powered steering gear.
Service history
Her initial service was as flagship on the Asiatic Station. In that role, she participated in Philippines-area Spanish-American War operations, including the Battle of Manila Bay, and returned to the U.S. in September 1899. It was from her deck that Commodore George Dewey spoke the famous words "You may fire when ready, Gridley", which launched the attack that resulted in the sinking or capture of the entire Spanish Pacific fleet under Admiral Patricio Montojo y Pasarón and silenced the shore batteries at Manila, all within the span of six hours. The precise spot where Dewey is believed to have stood when he gave the order is marked on the ship today. She was decommissioned at Boston on 08 November 1899, and recommissioned in January 1902 CAPT Thomas Benton Howard, in command.
From 1902 to 1906, Olympia was active in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Mediterranean. She was decommissioned at Norfolk on 01 April 1906, and recommissioned 15 May 1907. She also saw occasional service as a United States Naval Academy training ship into 1909. She was a barracks ship at Charleston, South Carolina, from 1912 to 1916, and recommissioned for sea duty in the latter year. Olympia spent World War I and the early post-war years in the Atlantic, the Russian Arctic as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and in the Mediterranean area. She was briefly reclassified as CA-15 on July 17, 1920, then CL-15 on August 8, 1921. In October-November 1921, she brought home the body of the "Great War's" Unknown Soldier. The Olympia was the first ship in the U.S. Navy to have a mechanically chilled fresh water dispenser, or "Scuttlebutt", and is the oldest steel warship still afloat.
Preservation of Olympia
Decommissioned on 9 December 1922, Olympia was preserved as a relic, being again reclassified IX-40 in June 30, 1931. On September 11, 1957 she was released to the Cruiser Olympia Association and modified back to her 1898 configuration and became a museum ship under their auspices until 1995 when faced with mounting debt, the Cruiser Olympia Society merged, on January 1, 1996 with the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Investigators studied the Olympia for clues to the explosion of the USS Maine. Two of its guns are located in the Captain's and Admiral's Quarters, which resemble Victorian sitting rooms, complete with tall cupboards, overstuffed furniture, and fireplace.
Today the Olympia is a museum at the Independence Seaport Museum, at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia. She is the sole floating survivor of the U.S. Navy's Spanish-American War fleet. NROTC Midshipmen from Villanova University NROTC and University of Pennsylvania NROTC regularly work on the Olympia, functioning as maintenance crew.[1]
References
- ^ Cooling, Benjamin Franklin. USS Olympia: Herald of Empire. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 2000. ISBN 1557501483
- This article includes text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships. The entry can be found here.
Further reading
- Alden, John D. (1989). American Steel Navy: A Photographic History of the U.S. Navy from the Introduction of the Steel Hull in 1883 to the Cruise of the Great White Fleet. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870212486. OCLC 22984787.
- Friedman, Norman (1984). U.S. Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press. ISBN 0870217186. OCLC 10949320.
External links
- USS Olympia (C-6) is at coordinates Coordinates:
- Photo gallery of Olympia at NavSource Naval History
- Independence Seaport Museum: USS Olympia
- Cruiser Olympia at Spanish-American War Centennial website
- HNSA Ship Page: USS Olympia
|
||||||||||
