As some of you know, the USS Olympia will be closed to the public on November 22nd, awaiting a decision on whether it will be scrapped or sunk as an artificial reef. The Independent Seaport Museum in Philadelphia does not have the money to keep the badly deteriorated ship afloat. The cruiser Olympia was built in San Francisco in 1893, as one of the first modern all-steel warships built in the US. It was Commodore Dewey's flagship during the battle of Manila Bay, in 1898. Already obsolete in 1914, it served as an escort during the war and later intervened in the Russian civil war. The Olympia brought the corpse of the Unknown Soldier to the US in 1921 and was decommissioned in 1922. The last time it was in dry dock was in 1945. The hull is badly corroded and paper thin in many places. The ship needs $20M in repairs, which the current owners haven't been able to raise. We can't let such an important piece of American history be scrapped or scuttled. If you can spare a couple of dollars, please donate to: http://cruiserolympia.org/Donate.html Some pictures I took today: http://s305.photobucket.com/albums/nn223/bw1339/USS Olympia/?start=all Please pass the word around and help save this historical ship.
Good luck on your drive to save that ship. A historic ship for sure, and history is very important to us all.
