Funding for the Restoration of the USS Olympia

We, the undersigned, do call upon the Congress of the United States, the National Park Service, the Department of the Navy, the Department of Defense, the City of Philadelphia, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to allocate funds for the preservation of the USS Olympia (C-6), now docked at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The USS Olympia was laid down on June 17, 1891, was launched on November 5, 1892, and was commissioned on February 5, 1895, and was the flagship of the Asiatic Station during the Spanish-American War, and in the capacity, participated in the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. It was from the decks of the Olympia that Commodore George Dewey gave the famous order, "You may fire when ready, Gridley."

The Olympia saw service in the First World War, where fifty sailors from the ship became the first American forces to land in Russia at the beginning of the so called "Polar Bear Expedition". Following the First World War, the Olympia brought home the body of the First World War's Unknown Soldier, and was decommissioned in 1922.

The Olympia is the last surviving ship from the Spanish-American War, and is the world's oldest steel-hulled ship. The Olympia is a National Historic Landmark, and the ship's vertical triple-expansion steam engines are Historic Engineer Landmarks.

The Olympia was saved from becoming scrap in 1954, but recently a new battle has unfolded. Docked continuously since 1945, the ship has deteriorated to the point that independent inspectors have concluded that the ship will decay beyond repair within a few years.

Steel hulled ships are recommended to be drydocked every 20 years for maintenance, but the Olympia, as noted above, has been bobbing in the water nonstop since 1945. The estimated cost of repairs are close to $10 million, and while the Independence Seaport Museum has spent close to $5.5 million for repairs, but will need $10 million to dredge the marina, tow the ship to a drydock, and restore it to it's original fighting condition.

We, the undersigned, do ask that these entities mentioned above step in and help fund the restoration and preservation efforts for the last survivor of, in the words of Theodore Roosevelt, "a splendid little war" so that future generations of Americans can visit this historic ship.