Now we live in Philadelphia. One of the walks we take goes along the Delaware River and past several ships permanently docked there. I believe I've already done a post on my favorite ship: Moshulu. It's now a restaurant. I've never eaten there, but on nice summer days, my husband and I sometime have a beer on the top deck. It's the ship Eric Newby wrote about in The Last Grain Race and it's beautiful.
But for years we've been saying we should tour the Cruiser Olympia. There's an early submarine there, too, the Becuna. I have no interest in submarines and touring one would be a nightmare for me. A few weeks ago, we finally toured the Olympia. Jack toured the Becuna - by himself.
USS Olympia was commissioned in 1895 and was Commodore Dewey's flagship at the Battle of Manila during the Spanish-American War. She was decommissioned in 1922. If you want all the details, here's the Wiki link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Olympia_(C-6)
Jack was interested in the engines and the guns, I wanted to see how the crew lived aboard. The ship has beautiful wood work, but, alas, like many of our National Historic Landmarks, it's in need of extensive repairs and maintenance. We, as a country, should be ashamed of ourselves for allowing our history to rot away.
Here are some photos of the outside and the inside (that's the Becuna to the left in the photo):
Above, officer's quarters. Below, below decks.
The galley is above. The ship was lucky in that it, apparently, had one of the first ice machines. This was especially nice because she was sailing in the Pacific.
If you needed surgery, this was the place where it happened. Gulp!
Then, of course, you'd want to wash all those bloody cloths in the laundry.
These are a few of the signs on the ship that I thought were interesting or funny. I especially like the Overboard Volunteer one!
