Warbird Information Exchange

Hi,
I am glad this was posted here, as it coincides with my personal interest in the Olympia. I grew up not to far from the Olympia's location and never got a chance to visit her until a few weeks ago. The ship is the oldest floating steel warship in existence, and as noted was Admiral Dewey's flagship during the battle of Manilla Bay. The cruiser also had a distinguished history before WWI and immediately. The ship and company was present for convoy duty in the Atlantic, cruised the Mediterranean at the end of WWI, and was present at Murmansk during the Russian Revolution. Including summer cruises for Mid-Shipmen, one of the last duties of the ship was to return the unknown soldier of WWI. Then she was decommissioned. At present time, the ship will be open from August 22nd to November 22nd, and then will be closed until future disposition is made of the vessel. I recommend getting there in that time, as it may be years before it is open again.

The ship is in need of help. I'm going to disregard talking about the issues with the Philadelphia Seaport Museum, as that can be found on the web and rehashing them here is not going to help the ship. I attended the last board meeting of the Friends of the Cruiser Olympia (FOTCO) on Sunday, August 15th, as I was asked to assist that organization's board and possibly be a board member if required. My purpose attending was to ask questions of the board in order to "vet" them for future aid; basically, I didn't want to endorse a group without knowing more about them. This is what I found, and is current information approved by them for release to the public.

1. The Friends of the Cruiser Olympia was founded about a year ago to gain stewardship of the vessel from the US Navy and retain the ship in Philadelphia as a floating museum. Their website is http://www.cruiserolympia.org.

2. The Philadelphia Seaport museum has determined that the ship no longer suits their organization, and has asked the USN to take back the ship. FOTCO intends to work with the museum to transfer stewardship of the ship and the 5000 plus artifacts which are part of the ship's collection and are not currently on display due to conservation issues.

3. FOTCO has incorporated in Delaware as a 501C3 organization, but submission of their IRS paperwork for federal recognition and designation has just been submitted. Therefore, donations at this point are NOT deductible from your taxes. This will change when they have IRS designation as a 501C3.

4. FOTCO has qualified US Naval engineering personnel on staff to guide conservation and public presentation of the ship. Also present in FOTCO is Bruce Harris, former executive officer of Amistad, and very well-versed in public historical education and conservation.

5. FOTCO requires $2.5 million in the bank by January 2011 to show responsibility inherent for designation by the USN as steward of the vessel. They are seeking pledges or donations at this time for this effort.

6. Immediate stabilization in place can be done with that money noted in item 5. In the next 5-8 years, the organization will require $10-20 million to haul the ship to the Rhodes shipyard down the road and do maintenance. The last time the ship was hauled was 1945. This time period, 5-8 years, is considered a critical period; delay past that point may lead to permanent irreversible decay.

7. There are other organizations which have expressed interest in the ship, including the great people who took such good care of the USS Cabot, the last jeep carrier. Being exposed to the board as I was on Sunday, and based on my experience with historcal conservation, I can't imagine a better-poised organization than FOTCO. However, I recommend doing due diligence with this organization as you would with any other. I am still learning about them myself, and am willing to pass what is appropriate on to anybody willing to donate to the FOTCO.

If you have any questions, head to http://www.cruiserolympia.org. If you want my opinions, please contact me here or at my webpage, http://www.forgottenfield.com. Do not delay!

2. The Philadelphia Seaport museum has determined that the ship no longer suits their organization,

Rather than wait for the Government to fund the restoration of the Olympia, I sent them $20 in the hope that the museum uses the money wisely

Why is there no US Navy museum to take care of these things? Every service has one if not service air museums for old planes but no museum that preserved and presents to history of the old ships. Surely this could be justified as a recruiting tool and to communicate the esprit de coups for active service personnel. What would the annual costs be as ratio to the daily costs of a carrier fleet?

I cant imagine them sinking the olympia but then again the navy scrapped the original Enterprise.both are criminal in my mind.can you believe they scrapped the enterprise.fought and survived the entire pacific war.the fact it was scrapped still amazes me

I cant imagine them sinking the olympia but then again the navy scrapped the original Enterprise.both are criminal in my mind.can you believe they scrapped the enterprise.fought and survived the entire pacific war.the fact it was scrapped still amazes me

And they used one of the ORIGINAL aircraft carriers, Saratoga, in the A-bomb tests at Bikini. Dam-n Shame

Scott