the middie flotilla put in at New England spa towns from Newport to Bar H arbor. Civilians swarmed over her in full appreciation of what she had done for the nation.
in the Capitol before final burial in Arlington National Cemetery. A Pulitzer Prizewinning Associated Press correspondent caught th e tone: "Under the wide and starry skies ofhis own homeland, America's unknown dead from France sleeps tonigh t, a soldier home from the wars." Olympia had brought that young warrior back from the cauldron of conflict.
ment at the local navy yard, saved fro m the scrap heap in World War II only wh en President Franklin D . Roosevelt traded Olympia's venerable Spanish War sister ship, the battleship Oregon, fo r such war World War I drive sacrifice. Olymp ia also proved among the costlier Finally, by 1954, preservation efforts by ships to maintain in peacetime, as a succeslocal veterans and patriotic societies in sion of Navy Department officials discovPhiladelphia secured Navy permission to ered about the coal-burning, slowly obsorepair and resto re Olympia and put her on lescing fleet. By 1912, the aging cruiser had Preserved as an Historic Ship public display. U n fo rtunately, costly hisbeen relegated to reserve as a barracks ship Olymp ia's wo rk was done and she went off to ric ship m aintenance and preserva tion at Charleston, South Carolina. Advent of to Philadelphia and a late spate of ceremo- (sans full Navy crew and normal fund ing) the Firs t Wo rld W ar, however, gave her a nial and Fleet Train duties. Finally, on 1 provided yet an other fo ur decades of handnew lease on life. Brought out of retire- September 1922 she was decom m issioned ro-mouth existence befo re the advent of ment, rearmed with twelve 4-inch /40city-developed Penn 's Landi ng Macaliber guns, she went on patrol duty rina and more recently the ass umption "Under the wide and starry skies of off NewYo rk. In January 19 17, howof care by the Independence Seaport his own homeland, America's ever, she hit a shoal in Long Island Museum. We may hope matters have Sound and while in repair dock, was now stabilized for the "Queen of the unknown dead from France sleeps once again rearmed, this time with ten Pacific." ,!, tonight, a soldier home from the new 5-inch/5 1-caliber guns. wars." Olympia had brought When the US became a belligerent D r. Cooling is Professor ofGrand Stratin 19 17 the cruiser rook on patrol and that young warrior back from egy and Mobilization at the I ndustrial convoy du ty in the N orth Atlantic. College of the Armed Forces, National the cauldron ofconflict. She was pressed into flagship service D efense University, Washington D C once more in 19 18 as head of an antiThis article is based on his new book, Bolshevik Allied expeditionary force to one las t time and committed to history. Olympia: H erald ofEmpire (Annapolis M D : Murmansk and Archangel in northern For the next 30 years she rusted in retire- Naval I nstitute Press, 2000) . Russia. At war's end, she shifted to the wa rmer waters of the M editerranean , Adriatic and Black Seas, helping to stabilize the turbulent Balkans while continuOlympia steams off to new pastures, now obsolescent ing to serve as squadron command ship but a revered idol, in 19 01. (National Archives) due to her speed and radio communication configuration.
Return of the Unknown Soldier Possibly Olympia's proudest moment came in 192 1 when, as the most famous Navy craft (the Constitution hardly able ro undertake transoceanic missions anymore), the government chose her to transport the remains of America's Unknown Soldier home from Le H avre, France. Once again wearing the drabness of wartime gray and no longer configured in the manner of her salad days after Manila Bay, Olymp ia braved a stormy crossing and the passage through Chesapeake and Potomac waters before reaching her destinatio n point at the Washington Navy Yard. H ere, she relinquished her charge to the Army as her ship's band played a dirge, her 5-inch guns boomed out 21 times, and the casket went through the railings to a waiting Army caisson and an overnight repose SEA HISTORY 94, AUTUMN 2000
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