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USS Olympia (C-6)

History of the Olympia (C-6)

Olympia C-6 laid at the Union Steel Works in San Francisco, California, June 1891. Introduced in November 1892, she sold for $1,796,000 (equivalent to $1,895). The Navy expanded the fleet and built the Olympia and other cruisers that could be used in the high seas beyond coastal defenses. She is a type of warship known as "protected", built in the late 19th century.

Protected refers to 5" deck armor that protects vital machinery below the deck from shrapnel from exploding shrapnel or falling fire. At the time, the Olympias were the largest and fastest cruisers built by the Navy, equipped with new advanced triple steam engines.

However, the Navy still only partially trusted steam, so it kept a limited number of sails in case of emergencies. She was also one of the first naval ships to be equipped with electric and powered steering gear.

Checked all protected cruisers C-1 to C-16 for the Olympias class. The Navy does not appear to have classified cruisers until 1892, when the USS Columbia C-12 was designated the first of her two ships, the second being the USS Minneapolis C-13. All 16 cruisers were built between 1888 and 1895.

The USS Olympia is famous for two reasons. First, the USS Olympia was Commodore George Dewey's flagship during the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War in 1895. Dewey sailed to Manila Bay that night. He gathered his captains and made plans for the attack the next night. After sunset, the U.S.

Asia Squadron entered the bay with the aim of attacking the Spanish fleet at dawn. Dewey formed formations on the front led by Olympia. Dewey's squadron approached the Spanish fleet's position, and at 5:15 the American fleet came under artillery fire, and Dewey decided to shorten the distance. When the position was correct, Dewey gave Olympia's captain the famous command "You can shoot when you're ready, Gridley." The U.S. squadron circled around, letting the ships fire first with their starboard guns, then their port guns after circling. Over the next 90 minutes, Dewey battered the Spaniards, destroying several ship strikes.

Dewey received news that his squadron was running low on ammunition and decided to retreat to the bay to regroup. Finding the report was a bug. He re-entered the bay around 11 a.m. to find only one Spanish vessel was firing. Dewey's ship closed and ended the battle, turning the enemy ship into a burning wreck.

At the end of the fire, the Spanish fleet suffered 371 casualties, on the other hand, 9 Americans were wounded, and enemy fire caused no casualties, but 1 sailor died of a heart attack.

From 1902 to 1906, USS Olympia served in the Atlantic and Mediterranean and served as a training ship for the United States Naval Academy. Olympia spent the First World War and postwar years in the Atlantic and as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War. She was reclassified as CA-15 on July 17, 1920, and then reclassified as CL-15 on August 8, 1921. From October to November 1921, she brought the body of an unknown soldier from World War I to the United States. Interestingly, the USS Olympia was the first US Navy ship to have a mechanically cooled fresh water dispenser.

Sailors called it a keg or butt scuttlebutt. When sailors gathered at scuttlebutt to drink water, they exchanged gossip, so scuttlebutt became a slang term for gossip or rumor. Today is the chiller at work, as is the gossip.

The cruiser was decommissioned in 1922 and wrecked in 1957. The Olympia has been a museum ship at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, since 2008, and is the oldest steel battleship still sailing.