OLYMPIA: Queen of the Pacific by B. Franklin Cooling n her prime, her sailors called her the "Queen of the Pacific. " Bureaucratical ly, the Department of the Navy styled her Cruiser N umber 6, positioning her in the new class forming the vanguard of the NewSreelNavyofrhe 19th century. Officially, she was named in honor of rhe capital of the new state of Washington. Today, USS Olympia is the pride of Penn's Landing on the Philadelphia waterfront, where she is maintained by the Independence Seaport Museum. Here, vis itors can tour this oldest survivor of the world's imperial fleets and savor her history, rich with variety and prominence including firing the opening shots at Manila Bay in 1898 and returning America's Unknown Soldier from France after World War I.
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Authorized in 1888 and laid down in 1891 by the Union Iron Works in San Francisco (as part of the Navy's effort to help underwrite a West Coast shipbuilding capability), Olympia incorporated steel plates and armor from Carnegie and Midvale mills in the east, ordnance from the naval gun factory at Washington D C, together with pine decking from Oregon. Commissioned four years later, she was sent our to the Asiatic fleer as flagship. In fact, that was what she was designed fora sort of "colonial battleship" in the view of one naval histo rian. Clad in the Navy's peacetime livery of "buff and white," she made a distinctly patriotic spectacle steaming our through the Golden Gare en route to the Far East in 1895 .
The New Navy of Empire Economically, the United Stares has always been expansive, even imperial. Occasionally territorial expansion has accompanied economic imperialism. When taken beyond the continental US, such movement has required the protection of a navy. T he flag has followed trade (and vice versa) in a never-ending symbiotic relationship that continues even now from the Persian G ulf to the Taiwan Straits. Often combat has intruded upon peaceful commerce and competition. Ir is not surprising, then, that after the Civil War, when domestic markets and territorial growth appeared at an end, moving overseas to the Caribbean and especially to Asia became very attractive. Such markets also captivated European countries and a race for trade and empire combined with the new industrial technologies to produce steam-powered, ironand steel-hulled, fast cargo and passenger ships to meet new demands. So it was, too, that industrial nations felt constrained to build new and more powerful warships to protect the trade. The US was rather late to the game. But, by the end of the 1880s, the government and the commercial sector had entered into an embryonic partnership of commercialism, diplomacy and navalism that presaged the so-called American century j usr ended. USS Olympia was part of this boisterous and exploitative rime, part of a nascent military-industrial complex developed to support overseas expans ionism.
Asiatic Squadron Flagship The million-dollar warship that rhe U nired Stares dispatched to the Orient was srareof-rhe-art. Termed a protected cruiser because of her armored deck, Olympia's statistics were impressive. The 5,870-ton vessel was 344 feet in length and 53 feet in breadth with a mean draft of2 l .5 feet. H er anrici pated endurance (6,000-mile cruising range) and speed (over 2 1 knots) wo uld come from twin 9,000-horsepower vertical inverted triple expansion engines, driven
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by steam from six Scorch boilers. A nod to tradition gave her a two-masted schooner auxiliary sail rig. As a fighting ship , she sported unusual cylindrical full turrets fore and aft that mounted two pairs of 8-inch/35-caliber breech-loading rifled guns . H er firepower further comprised ten 5-inch/40-caliber breech-loading rapid-fire guns mounted singly in casemares in a 12-sided "citadel" amidships, fourteen 6-pounder quick-firing rifles in small sponsons on the second deck and shielded open mounts in the superstructure, six one-pounders, four Garling repeating guns in the fighting tops of her two military masts, and tubes for launching six 18-inch Whitehead torpedoes. The distinctive armored conning rower as well as the 2- to 4-inch protected deck added to her combat qualities . Beautifully appointed quarters for flag officer, ship's captain, and 32 otherofficers and ample space for nearly 400 enlisted men had been fitted our at Mare Island Navy Yard along with all the other necessary appurtenances, gear, supplies, fuel, and ammunition due for her departure. A ship's band and complement of marines added to Olympia's fl agship role. Passage across the Pacific was stormy, with fires in the coal bunkers and little chance for set-
Steel launched into the Pacific transformed America's navy. . .. A fleet of sailing ships overlooks Olympias launching in 1892 while tugs and small craft hover around. (Photo: Navy Photo Center, Washington Navy Yard; courtesy Independence Seaport Museum)
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