USS Olympia (C-6)

USS Olympia (before 1899). USS Olympia, port bow, 10 February 1902. USS Olympia, port side, 15 September 2007.
Career
Ordered:	7 September 1888
Laid down:	17 June 1891
Launched:	5 November 1892
Commissioned:	5 February 1895
Decommissioned:	9 December 1922
Fate:	Museum ship
Struck:
General characteristics
Displacement:	5,586 tons
Length:	344 ft 1 in
Beam:	53 ft, 0 5/8 inches
Draught:	21 ft 6 in
Propulsion:	twin screw, vertical triple-expansion
Speed:	20 knots ()
Range:	13,000 nautical miles (24,000 km)
Complement:	33 officers and 395 enlisted men
Armament:	4 8-inch, 35-caliber breech-loading rifles, 10 5-inch 40-caliber rapid-fire guns;, 14 6–pdrs., 6 1–pdrs., 4 Gatlings, 6 18-inch Whitehead above-surface torpedo tubes.

For other ships with the same name, see USS Olympia.

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 currently a museum ship in Philadelphia.

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 J. Read in command.

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 space of six hours. The precise spot where Dewey is believed to have stood when he gave the order is marked off on the ship today.

From 1902 to 1906, Olympia was active in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Mediterranean. 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 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.

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, where she remains today as the sole floating survivor of the U.S. Navy's Spanish-American War fleet. NROTC Midshipmen from Villanova University NROTC regularly work on the Olympia, functioning as maintenance crew.

Further Reading

• Alden, John D. 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, 1989. ISBN 0870212486
• Friedman, Norman. U.S. Cruisers: An Illustrated Design History. Annapolis, Maryland: Naval Institute Press, 1984. ISBN 0870217186

External links

• History.navy.mil: USS Olympia
• USS Olympia
• Independence Seaport Museum: USS Olympia
• Cruiser Olympia at Spanish-American War Centennial website
• HNSA Ship Page: USS Olympia

References

 This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships.

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  USS Olympia, stern, 22 March 2003