Historic warship Olympia may be scrapped, sunk

The News Tribune (Tacoma WA) ^ | 5/27/10

[tanknetter]

It’s what happened to the Oregon.

Oregon was scrapped under completely different circumstances, as part of a scrap-metal drive in a misguided and myopic fit of patriotism following Pearl Harbor.

The loss of Olympia would be a tragedy roughly equivalent to the scrapping of the USS Enterprise (CV-6) in the late 1950s. While Olympia may not be Enterprise, or Constitution, she represents more than anything else (at least anything that will be accessible to the average American until after the Castro brothers die) a singular moment in US history that defined us as a nation.

The thing that makes me want to p*ke is that saving Olympia would cost a frikkin' percent of a percent of a fraction of a percent of how much this country has gone into DEBT over the past year in "stimulus" money. Especially considering the US taxpayer money that's gone into restoring the NS Savannah over the last year. There's more than enough available to completely restore her and display her properly under the auspices of the US Navy.

[Oztrich Boy]

No commemoration of McKinley's WAR!

[kgrif_Salinas]

This is a unique bit of American Naval history which should be preserved. If Obama can come up with another $200B pork-ulous package, seems we should have $20M to rennovate this great old ship and keep it going, IMHO
Ex-skimmer

[Just Lori]

No way. That ship is a sign of WAR. Olympians have several times tried to block ships coming to and going from their port because they were transporting support items to and from our troops in Iraq & Afghanistan. Some of those idiots from Evergreen would try to blow it up.

[shanover]

By the way the SS United States down the Delaware river may face the same fate.

[rockrr]

I say we scrap the capitol and keep the boat...;-)

[Rabble]

"Is the WW2 sub still tied up next to her? I can’t remember the sub’s name. I think it started with a “B”. Buscemi(?)"

U.S.S. Becuna

USS Becuna (SS/AGSS-319), a Balao-class submarine, was a ship of the United States Navy named for the becuna, a pike-like fish of Europe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Becuna_(SS-319)

[Rabble]

Here is the USS Becuna alongside the Cruiser Olympia. My family & I have toured both on numerous occasions.

[glorgau]

It was probably done to increase her length at the waterline, which in turn increases her top speed.

An idea prevalent at the time was that ramming would sometimes come into play. Look at the bow shapes of ancient Greek Triremes.

[blau993]

No. It’s all steel.

[PghBaldy]

I just read about this today. Found it while searching for something else... Here is link to website of Philly Seaport, which has her now: http://www.phillyseaport.org/ships_olympia.shtml