USS Olympia (C-6) Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
| Olympia, port bow, 10 February 1902. | |
| Career | |
|---|---|
| Ordered: | |
| Laid down: | 17 June 1891 |
| Launched: | 5 November 1892 |
| Commissioned: | 5 February 1895 |
| Decommissioned: | 9 December 1922 |
| Fate: | Museum ship |
| Struck: | |
| General Characteristics | |
| Displacement: | 5,586 tons |
| Length: | 344 ft 1 in |
| Beam: | 53 ft |
| Draught: | 21 ft 6 in |
| Propulsion: | |
| Speed: | 20 kts |
| Range: | |
| Complement: | 411 officers and enlisted |
| Armament: | 4 8”, 10 5”, 4 6–pdrs., 6 1–pdrs., 6 18” tt. |
| Aircraft: | |
| Motto: | |
USS Olympia (C-6) was a protected cruiser in the United States Navy during the Spanish-American War. She is currently a museum ship.
Olympia was laid down 17 June 1891 by Union Iron Works, San Francisco, California; launched 5 November 1892; sponsored by Miss Ann B. Dickie; and commissioned 5 February 1895, Captain John J. Read in command.
Her initial service was as flagship on the Asiatic Station. In that role, she participated in Philippines area Spanish-American War operations, including the Battle of Manila Bay, and returned to the U.S. in September 1899.
From 1902 to 1906, Olympia was active in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Mediterranean, and then saw occasional service as a Naval Academy training ship into 1909. She was a barracks ship at Charleston, South Carolina, from 1912 to 1916, and recommissioned for sea duty in the latter year. Olympia spent World War I and the early post-war years in the Atlantic, the Russian Arctic and in the Mediterranean area. She was briefly reclassified as CA-15 in 1920, then CL-15 in 1921. In October-November 1921 she brought home the body of the "Great War's" Unknown Soldier.
Decommissioned on 9 December 1922, Olympia was preserved as a relic, being again reclassified IX-40 in 1931. Beginning in 1957 she was modified back to her 1898 configuration and became a museum ship at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she remains today as the sole floating survivor of the U.S. Navy's Spanish-American War fleet.
See USS Olympia for other ships of this name.