USS Olympia - Protected Cruiser of the New Navy
Cruiser Olympia and Balao-class submarine Becuna, SS-319, at Philadelphia in August of 2024.
When USS Olympia was laid down in 1891, the United States Navy still operated a number of wooden ships such as USS Kearsarge - ships which primarily moved under sail and upon which almost all tasks from raising the anchors to running out the guns were accomplished by human muscle. Beginning with the “ABCD” ships of the late 1880s, the United States built a series of cruisers and then battleships which would introduce steel hulls, face-hardened steel armor, massive breechloading rifles, quick-firing guns, compound expansion steam engines, torpedoes. While the US Navy had introduced the turreted monitors during the American Civil War, those ships were confined by their low freeboard and limited endurance to coastal waters. Olympia, the big armored cruisers Brooklyn and New York, and the battleship Iowa could cross an ocean and fight a battle at the end of it. These were those that fought and won the Spanish American war.
Olympia is unique among American museum ships. For those used to visiting museum ships built for the Second World War, much will seem familiar, but much also harkens back to an earlier era: the large amounts of wooden paneling, the hammocks on the gun deck, and the armament aimed and fired under local control. She is the oldest steel-hulled American warship still afloat and one of the view warships of her era still in existence.
As this website is dedicated to covering US Naval Artifacts and Artillery of the 19th Century, the cruiser Olympia represents the end of that period. As such she is fascinating to compare with USS Constitution, Constellation, and Monitor - as well as 20th century ships.
Many photo and video tours of Olympia exist on the internet. What follows below are just a few photos to show my time aboard. I may take a deeper look at some of the 1890s cannons still aboard in the future.
By all means visit Olympia, though. She is well interpreted by signs. She is a natural treasure - really a world treasure. She needs visitors.
Visitors to Olympia access the ship via Becuna and enter the second deck via a gangway. Note that Battleship New Jersey is visible at left on the other side of the Delaware River.
Gangway headboard of USS Olympia on the second-deck entrance to the ship.
Wardroom of Olympia. Compare to similar areas on Constitution and Constellation.
Entrances to officer’s cabins forward of the Wardroom. Note the support and ammunition hoist for the aft 8-Inch turret above.
6-Pounder (57mm) rifled quick firing gun on the second deck. The 6-Pounder and 5-Inch guns may be found in living spaces throughout the second deck (6-Pounders) and main deck (5-Inch).
A view of the top of one of Olympias compound expansion steam engines. Her engines were both much more powerful and much more efficient than the engines which powered ships of the Civil War era - enabling far higher speeds and longer range.
Olympia has a well equipped machine shop aboard. Steel ships with steel parts need machine tools to stay in service.
Models of USS Olympia showing how her configuration and livery changed over time.
Hammocks and mess tables on the second deck. This photo manages to harken back to berth deck photos of Constitution and Constellation while also being similar to the second deck of USS North Carolina (BB55) except for the portholes and 6-pounder gun.
Steam powered machinery - in this case the anchor windlass - has replaced many tasks which were human powered in former years.
The laundry - not so different from a similar spaces on WWII era ships and a world away from ships of the old sail navy.
5-Inch / 40-Caliber Breech Loading Rifle. As built, Olympia carried ten of these guns on the main deck.
5-Inch / 51 Caliber gun. USS Olympia was rearmed with this much more powerful 5-Inch guns in 1917 for World War One service.
The sight of the above 5/51 shows the gun is keeping an eye on BB62 across the river.
Galley on USS Olympia. In some ways not so different than 20th Century ships - and a far cry from the single galley stove of old wooden ships.
Top deck of Olympia looking forward
Breech of a 6-Pounder - again keeping an eye on BB62
Emergency steering position aft
Binnacle and engine telegraph on the open bridge of Olympia
Interior of the Pilot House on the bridge of USS Olympia
View from the bridge wing of USS Olympia looking aft
Footprints on the deck of the bridge of Olympia mark the spot where Commodore Dewey stood during the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898.
Olympia’s 8-Inch Turrets were removed in 1917 and replaced with 5”/51 guns in 1917. For display as a museum ship, the turrets have been replaced by sheet-metal mockups.
The place on the deck of Olympia where the casket containing the remains of the Unknown Soldier of World War One was transported from France to the United States in 1921. The display notes how extremely heavy whether forced the Marines standing guard to lash both the casket and themselves to the deck to avoid being swept overboard.
This is just a small glimpse of what there is to see aboard USS Olympia. Please take the time to go visit the entire Independence Seaport Museum, Olympia, and Becuna. Olympia needs your support!
Ships in this photo of the Delaware River in Philadelphia include, Battleship New Jersey, SS United States, the Barque Moshulu, and Cruiser Olympia
