LETTERS
Failing Our Historic Ships
USS Olympia in Philadelphia What the heck is going on at our maritime museums? Last year we heard the unthinkable-that the Hawaiian Maritime Center in Honolulu had given up trying to maintain the only iron-hulled, four-masted full rigged ship afloat and, to make all their problems go away, they put out the threat that unless some other organization or benefactor came to the rescue to take the Falls ofClyde off their hands, that they'd take her out to deep water and sink her. In 2010, I thought we were past that sort of thinking-that the deep ocean is a dumping gro und simply because the stuff we sink is out of sight. From an environmental standpoint, yo u'd chink chat people would be in an uproar, even if they didn't care about the ship itself. In your last issue, we read chat the Essex-built fishing schooner Evelina M. Goulart, again the last of her kind, is likely to be dismantled because the museum cannot afford to stab ilize her to keep her from falling on some kid's head as he walks by. I just heard that the USS Olympia, Admiral Dewey's flagship from the Battle of Manila Bay, is in danger of being scrapped or, "to preserve her," be sunk as an artificial reef. She has been owned and maintained (I guess
not very well) by the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia since 1996. With all the money we spend on defense, does the Navy not have any money to preserve its own history? I know that ships cost an enormous amo unt of money to maintain, but this losing battle has got to tell us loud and clear chat the way we have been going abour preserving our own heritage is not working. One by one, we learn of these scenarios, shake o ur heads, usually blame the museums that own them, and then move on. We tend to forget about it until the next ship is, as you say, "on a lee shore." Going about it one at a time, and failing, is only going to result in the permanent loss of our maritime memory. When they are all gone, save a few, it wo n't do any good to say, aw shucks, we tried. Try H arder! MICHAEL R. MULLEN Newtown, Pennsylvania Did you know that USS Olympia-the last survivor of the War with Spain and the oldesr surviving steel warship from rhe era of Teddy Roosevelt-is abo ut to become a reef off the New Jersey Coast? That is a
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real possibility; faced w ith a multi-million dollar repair bill , the Philadelphia museum has ch osen to punt its responsibiliti es for care of this icon of American maritime/ naval history. Does anyone care? Well, Philadelphia's tourism industry and C ity Hall should. The economic opportunities afforded by her repairs in a nearly defun ct maritime industry should prompt politicians' interest. Patriotic Americans should be irate at yet another historical treasure sacrificed on the altar of expedience and pecuniary considerations. After all, the Olympia stands as a memorial to an era of natio nal pride and robust eco nomic endeavor when Am erica bestrode the wo rld scene. Theodore Roosevelt and the Olympia represent what America was all abo ut at the opening of the ''American Century." Lest we forget, she symbolizes both a co mbatant warship and an ambassador of the USA: her wh ite and buff hull, colors symbolic of a peace-loving nation, making her way among decadent imperial powers. She was a protected cruiser in the naval tradition of commerce protection and force projection, not a warship for defense ofsome imperial realm. Not only did she wrest the
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