and the Battle to Save Olympia
by Caprain Walrer Rybka
ex-USS Olympia At a glance: 1895 Protected Cruiser. Olympia is the sole surviving U S Navy vessel of its era and one of only fo ur major warships in the world from the period from 1890 to 19 14-the others are the Russian cruiser Aurora, 1900; the (B ritish-built) Japanese battleship Mikasa, 1900; and the (Italian-built) Greek arm ored cruiser Giorgos Averoff, 19 10. Although it was one of Am erica's forgo tten wars, the Spanish-American War of 1898 w as a turning point in American history, in large measure because of the naval battle of M anila Bay, at which Olympia was the US Navy's Bags hip.
The eventual growth of the United States into a major naval power would likely have occurred regardless, but the die was cast in the events of 1898. Although the Spanish-American War may have been hastily conceived with no strategic designs on the Pacific, the early and complete victory at M anila Bay prompted conquest of the Philippin es, which in turn had profound lo ng- term, unintended consequences. If the war had been confined to C uba and Puerto Rico, it is just possible the US may have remained hegem o nic only in the Atlantic-Caribbean theater and retained only a coastwise Navy to guard the approaches to the Atlan tic-Pacific Canal which was sure to be buil t soon (Panama as a natio n did not yet exist). Nevertheless, once we had defeated Spain in the Philippines and decided to remain there ourselves, the US had self-imposed wo rldwide res ponsibilities, which required the establishment of a wo rld-ranging navy. Some believe the US conquest of the Philippines was the next, natural, and ultimately beneficial step in M anifest D estiny. So me see it as a murderously foolish and caras trophic blunder, which set us on a collision course with Japan a generation later. Eith er way, there is no arguing that it was no t a pivotal event in wo rld history, and the catalyst for a wo rld-ranging chain reaction was the powder burned in Olymp ia's guns, at the precipitating moment of what became the ''American Century."
ex-USS Constellation At a glance: 1854 Sloop-of-War. The last sail-only warship designed and built fo r the United States Navy, this is an excellent example from a period of US dominance in design of fas t wooden sailing ships. Constellation is the las t vessel aBoat to have served in the C ivil War and the las t vessel to participate in the suppression of the African slave trade. Slavery, if nor the original sin ofhumani ry, was mosr certainly ,Jo, the original sin in rhe founding of this nation; it had been as common I as war and pestilence through all recorded history. The remarkable story is how the system cam e crashing down in about a 100-year period . Of course, it persists even today, but o n nothing of the scale of the past and, importantly, is delegitimized and shrunken into a furtive criminal activiry. The passing of m ass chattel slave ry is to human social development o n the same order of magnitude as the mastery of fi re, agricul ture, and th e wheel were to technical progress. The particular chapter known as the Atlantic slave trade was a nearly fo ur-hund red-year saga of horror. Any tangible lin k to its interpretati on, let alone an instrum ent of its ending, is worthy of preserva tio n, es pecially so when the same ship is a survivo r of active du ry in the war over slave ry that, to this day, is the most tra umatic event in American history.
ex-USS Constellation in Baltimore Harbor SEA HISTORY l35 , SUMMER 201 l
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