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Cruiser OLYMPIA

Length 344 feet
Beam 53 feet
Displacement 5,870 tons
Crew 33 officers
396 enlisted men
Top speed 22 knots (25 mph)
Coal consumption at top speed 633 lbs. per minute

Step back in time aboard the Museum's Spanish-American War veteran, Cruiser OLYMPIA!

OLYMPIA (C-6) is the oldest steel warship afloat in the world. She was launched in San Francisco, California in 1892. She is similar to many early steel warships built in Philadelphia for the US Navy.

On May 1, 1898, OLYMPIA devastated a Spanish fleet at Manila Bay in the Philippines, beginning the Spanish-American War. OLYMPIA helped catapult the United States into the role of superpower and won fame for her most famous officer, Commodore George Dewey. It was from OLYMPIA's bridge that Dewey remarked, "You may fire when you are ready, Gridley." OLYMPIA also served her country during World War I.

Cruiser OLYMPIA was decommissioned in 1922 and has been part of Independence Seaport Museum’s Historic Ship Zone since 1996.

Cruiser OLYMPIA is a National Historic Landmark, a National Historic Mechanical Engineering Landmark, is on the National Register of Historic Places, and is part of the Save America’s Treasures program.

To learn more about Cruiser OLYMPIA, visit the Spanish-American War Centennial Website, home to OLYMPIA’s all-volunteer Living History Crew.

Click here to return to the Historic Ship Zone homepage.

Travel back in time...
See what's changed aboard OLYMPIA in the past 100 years. Click here to begin.

Look inside...
What's inside an OLYMPIA sailor's ditty box? Click here to find out.

Explore Submarine BECUNA.
Click here to cross the gangway to Submarine BECUNA.