USS Olympia (C-6)

USS Olympia (C-6)

USS Olympia (C-6), port bow, 10 February 1902.
History
United States
Name	Olympia
Namesake	The City of 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 November 1899
Recommissioned	January 1902
Decommissioned	2 April 1906
Recommissioned	1916
Decommissioned	9 December 1922
Reclassified	CA-15, 17 July 1920 CL-15, 8 August 1921 IX-40, 30 June 1931
Refit	1901, 1902, 1916
Stricken	11 September 1957
Identification	Hull symbol:C-6 Hull symbol:CA-15 Hull symbol:CL-15 Hull symbol:IX-40
Nickname(s)	"Queen of the Pacific", "The Winged O"
Fate	Restored as Museum Ship
Status	Museum ship.
General characteristics (as built)
Type	Protected cruiser
Displacement	5,586 long tons (5,676 t) (standard) 6,588 long tons (6,694 t) (full load)[2]
Length	344 ft 1 in (104.88 m)
Beam	53 ft (16 m)[2][1]
Draft	21 ft 6 in (6.55 m)
Installed power	17,000 ihp (13,000 kW)[2]
Propulsion	2 × vertical triple-expansion steam engines 6 × boilers (4 × double-ended, 2 × single-ended)[2] 2 × screws
Speed	21.7 knots (40.2 km/h; 25.0 mph)[1]
Range	6,000 nmi (11,000 km; 6,900 mi) at 10 knots (19 km/h; 12 mph)[1]
Capacity	1,169 short tons (1,060 t) coal (maximum)[2]
Complement	33 officers and 395 enlisted
Armament	4 × 8 in (203 mm)/35 cal Mark 4 guns (2×2) 10 × 5 in (127 mm)/40 cal Mark 2 guns (10×1) 14 × 6-pounder 57 mm (2.24 in) Driggs-Schroeder guns 6 × 1-pounder 37 mm (1.46 in) guns 4 × Gatling guns 6 × 17.7 in (450 mm) above-surface torpedo tubes, firing Whitehead Mark 1 torpedoes
Armor	Deck: 4.75 in (12.1 cm) on slopes 2 in (5.1 cm) flat 3 in (7.6 cm) ends[3] Barbettes: 4.5 in (11 cm) Turrets: 3.5 in (8.9 cm);[1] 4 in (10 cm) (shields to 5-inch guns)[3]
General characteristics (1917)
Armament	10 × 5 in (127 mm)/51 cal Mark 8 guns (10×1)
Olympia
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
U.S. National Historic Landmark
USS Olympia (C-6) at the Independence Seaport Museum in 2007.
Location	Penn's Landing Marina, South Columbus Blvd. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Coordinates	39°56′37″N 75°8′27″W / 39.94361°N 75.14083°W / 39.94361; -75.14083
Area	less than one acre
Built	1892
Built by	Union Iron Works of San Francisco
NRHP reference No.	66000692[4]
Added to NRHP	15 October 1966

USS Olympia (C-6/CA-15/CL-15/IX-40) is a protected cruiser that saw service with the United States Navy from her commissioning in 1895 until 1922. She is currently a museum ship in Philadelphia.

Olympia became famous as the flagship of Commodore George Dewey during the Battle of Manila Bay in the Spanish–American War in 1898. The ship was decommissioned after returning to the U.S. in 1899, but was returned to active service in 1902. She served until World War I as a training ship for naval cadets and as a floating barracks in Charleston, South Carolina. In 1917, she was mobilized again for war service, patrolling the American coast and escorting transport ships.

After World War I, Olympia participated in the 1919 Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and conducted cruises in the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas to promote peace in the unstable Balkan countries. In 1921, the ship carried the remains of World War I's Unknown Soldier from France to Washington, D.C., where his body was interred in Arlington National Cemetery. Olympia was decommissioned for the last time in December 1922 and placed in reserve.

In 1957, the U.S. Navy ceded title to the Cruiser Olympia Association, which restored the ship to her 1898 configuration. Since then, Olympia has been a museum ship in Philadelphia, where it is now part of the Independence Seaport Museum. Olympia was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

Olympia is the oldest steel American warship still afloat.^[5] Repairs, estimated at $10 to 20 million, were desperately needed to keep Olympia afloat, and in 2010 the Independence Seaport Museum considered finding a new steward for the ship. By 2014, the museum reversed its plan to find a new steward and soon obtained funding from private donors as well as federal and state agencies to begin work on repairing the ship.

The museum invested in extensive stabilization measures including reinforcing the most deteriorated areas of the hull, expanding the alarm system, installing a network of bilge pumping stand pipes (which will provide greater damage control capability in the unlikely event of a hull breach), extensive deck patching and extensive repair and recoating of the ship's rigging. This work was made possible by donations from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the U.S. Cruiser Sailors Association and many individual donors.^[6][7] By 2017, the museum completed the first phase of repairs to the ship and has embarked on an ambitious national campaign to raise the $20 million needed to dry-dock Olympia and address waterline deterioration of the hull.^[8]