Weekend pics - visit to the USS Olympia

[Denis]

USS Olympia, built in 1892 and commissioned in 1893. The oldest floating steel warship in the world! She was Admiral Dewey's flagship in the Spanish American War, and was the first naval vessel in the world with ice making machines and refrigeration. She brought home America's WWI soldier in 1921.

It's been in the water continuously since 1945 without proper maintenance. Sadly, she's scheduled to close in December, there's the very real possibility it may be scrapped or sunk as a reef. F*cking travesty! Apparently, and I found this out this weekend while there, that there's a number of groups interested in saving her, including the group which restored the carrier Intrepid, which was brought back to NYC a couple of years ago. The Navy has continuously turned down funding for the ship.

I drove up specifically to see her since it might be the last time I get the chance. Because I drove from NC, the head maintenance guy gave me a cool, down and dirty tour of her innards, all the way down to the engine and boiler rooms, steering rooms, torpedo rooms and bunkers, captain and admiral's quarters, and other places normally off limits. He gave me a coin made from one of the original bronze props, which were scrapped long ago. It would be terrible to lose such a treasure as this ship.



The odd bulge above the waterline in the bow is a torpedo tube.


Stern shot. The sailing ship is now a restaurant.




Forward stack.


The downward sloping lines represent the armored deck. If the USS Arizona had such things it might not have been completely destroyed at Pearl Harbor.


Stern steering if needed!






The restored teak pilot house.


These gears and chains are directly  below the pilot house and run down through the ship to the rudder control systems in the stern.





Speaking tube outside the pilothouse.


This railing is pure art!

[sniper]

"Just after midnight on May 1, 1898, the USS Olympia led the United States's Asiatic Squadron quietly through the calm, glassy waters of the Boca Grande Channel, between the island of Corregidor and the coast of Luzon in the Philippines. The United States was at war with Spain, and the American squadron was preparing to attack a Spanish fleet in Manila Bay.

As Sunday morning dawned hours later, the Olympia's commander, Captain Charles Gridley, waited for the order to fire his ship's guns. The order would come from the squadron's commander, Commodore George Dewey, who watched from atop the Olympia's flying bridge as shore batteries fired harmlessly at the advancing column of American ships. At 5:40 A.M. Dewey finally hailed Gridley with the now-famous words, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley."

http://www.historynet.com/you-may-fire-when-you-are-ready-gridley-januaryfebruary-98-american-history-feature.htm

[TBird1958]

Very Cool!
What a great weekend.

Named after the capital of Washington state, the Olympia has at least cheated the scrapper's torch unlike the unsung USS Washington BB56 see http://usswashington.com/1stbatt.htm

[Highlander]

Excellent shots...

The only way I can see one of my granddad's ships is to get permission to dive 60m down in the Bass Straits to view an historic wreck...

There are several old ships here but so much is lost...

[Muzikman7]

http://www.navy.mil/navydata/ships/battleships/bb-list.asp  I was on the carrier Intrepid, battleships Massachusetts & North Carolina, submarine Lionfish, destroyer Joseph P Kennedy, fast frigate Donald B Beary, destroyer escort Frank O Slater, heavy frigate Constitution (Old Ironsides), barque Kruzenshtern I also went to sail Boston the gathering of worlds saling ships in 1992.

[Denis]

I've been on the North Carolina, the Texas, the Olympia and the Yorktown. Although I've seen the Alabama, the New Jersey and the Iowa before it was placed in reserve in California, I've never been in any of those.

One thing I want to do in my lifetime is to visit all the battleships so I need to visit the Alabama, the New Jersey, the Wisconsin and the Missouri which of course that means a visit to Pearl Harbor to see the Arizona Memorial and Utah Memorial. A lot of people don't know it but the Utah is still in Pearl Harbor too. Hell the Constitution counts, so when I go  see the Massachusetts I'll visit her too.

Hopefully Los Angeles will get the Iowa. And I REALLY hope the Olympia, which is technically an armored cruiser, gets saved.

[Barklessdog]

Very cool ship, it would be sad if they scrapped or sunk her. Certainly some museum somewhere would want it ?

I have been on the intrepid, a U boat here in Chicago & a US Sub in Cleveland. I always wanted to see the New Jersey.

[Pilgrim]

In the 90's my family toured the carrier Lexington, moored in Corpus Christi.  http://www.usslexington.com/

I was struck not only by its size, but by the fact that a ship of that volume is really a framework; over time, the installations in that framework change..like remodeling houses, except each building is within a ship.

Really a fascinating thing to do.