Skip to content
The 344-foot-long USS Olympia dwarfs a pleasure craft on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. Image courtesy of Wikimedia commons

Spanish-American War cruiser USS Olympia to close

Tom Hoepf
Tom Hoepf

The 344-foot-long USS Olympia dwarfs a pleasure craft on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. Image courtesy of Wikimedia commons
The 344-foot-long USS Olympia dwarfs a pleasure craft on the Delaware River in Philadelphia. Image courtesy of Wikimedia commons
PHILADELPHIA (AP) – A historic warship that served in the Spanish-American War and is now docked in Philadelphia will close this fall.

The USS Olympia, the world’s oldest steel warship still afloat, will close to the public on Nov. 22.

Officials with the Independence Seaport Museum say the ship will have to be dry-docked in hopes of getting much-needed repairs.

But the museum’s president, Capt. John Gazzola, said the ultimate fate of the ship is uncertain.

Gazzola said the ship will either be retained and repaired or gotten rid of. Repairs could cost as much as $2.5 million.

Launched at Union Iron Works in San Francisco on Nov. 5, 1892, the cruiser was the flagship of Commodore George Dewey during the Spanish-American War. The ship’s guns fired the first shots at the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898. It is the only vessel of the Navy’s Spanish-American War fleet still afloat.

___

Information from: KYW-AM, http://www.kyw1060.com

Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

AP-ES-08-12-10 1009EDT