By Donna Beth Weiilenman
Staff Reporter

The Mare Island Historic Park Foundation has cleared another hurdle in its two-year quest to bring a historic battle cruiser home to the former Mare Island Naval Shipyard, project manager Dennis Kelly said.

The Independence Seaport Museum, the U.S. Navy and the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission have developed the multi-step process by which the foundation is trying to obtain the USS Olympia, the oldest surviving steel-hulled warship in the world, Kelly said.

Last August, the Independence Seaport Museum invited the Mare Island foundation to prepare the next phase of its application. “That step was completed today with the submission of our Phase II, Part B application,” Kelly said Thursday.

Not only is the Olympia the oldest ship of its kind, it also was the flagship of Admiral George Dewey, who won the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War and who was awarded by Congress the special rank of Admiral of the Navy, the most senior rank in that branch of the military.

Dewey sailed on the Olympia from China on April 27, 1898, with orders to attack the Spanish at Manila Bay. The morning of May 1, the ship was at the mouth of Manila Bay, and Dewey gave his famous order, “You may fire when you are ready, Gridley.”

Six hours later, he had sunk or captured the entire Spanish fleet in the Pacific.

“It was from Olympia’s decks that American sailors thrust the United States into our role as a world power, began the Pax Americana in the Pacific and freed the 90 million people of the Philippines from over 300 years of Spanish colonial rule,” Kelly said.

He said the Olympia “ranks among the three most important ships in U.S. Naval history, ranking in the company of the USS Constitution (“Old Ironsides”) and the Civil War ironclad, the Monitor.

Dewey, who distinguished himself during several naval battles during the Civil War, commanded the USS Constitution when it was a training ship berthed at Annapolis.

But unlike the Constitution and the Monitor, the Olympia has faded in the public’s memory, Kelly said, calling it a “forgotten icon.”

He frankly described the Mare Island Historic Park Foundation’s efforts to bring the vessel to Vallejo.

“We recognize that the MIHPF fundraising results remain disappointing,” he said.

Stalled donations in part led another citizens’ group to lose the chance to bring another famous ship, the USS Iowa, to Mare Island. Instead, that ship was awarded to a Southern California organization.

But Kelly said the park foundation has other things in its favor.

“The MIHPF effort to acquire the Olympia is unique, based on the facilities available and the amount of planning that has been completed to date,” he said.

Among that preparatory work has been the determination of a direct historical connection between Mare Island Naval Shipyard and the Olympia, not to mention the entire United States fleet that engaged in the battle of Manila Bay, he said.

He said the foundation also has a successful 20-year record. The organization cares for four of the most historic buildings in the Mare Island National Historic Landmark District: St. Peter’s Chapel, built in 1901 and containing the most Tiffany windows in the West; Quarters A, the largest of 13 colonial revival mansions, built the year before; Quarters B, also called the Captain’s Mansion; and Building 46, the 1855 smithery and pipe shop that now is the Artifacts Museum.

In addition, Kelly said, the foundation is reconstructing the control panel of the SSBN 658 Mariano G. Vallejo, a nuclear ballistic missile submarine that was decommissioned in 1995, and is seeking a permanent home for the ship’s 65-ton sail.

The submarine’s control room and periscope displays are in the Mare Island Museum, not far from where the ship was built and launched.

The organization also is the caretaker for the USS LCS 102, a little gunboat that never was given its own name by the U.S. Navy, though it fought in Okinawa during World War II. Before being returned to the United States through the efforts of such veterans as Bill Mason, a San Francisco professor, the little vessel became a Thai Navy ship, serving that country for more than 40 years.

The Olympia’s link to Mare Island Naval Shipyard predates its tie to Dewey by three years. The ship had been launched in 1892 from Union Iron Works, San Francisco, and was commissioned at Mare Island in 1895.

It also left Mare Island in 1895 to relieve the USS Baltimore as the flagship of the Asiatic Station.

That was well before the ship would enter the Spanish-American War, precipitated by the sinking of the battleship USS Maine in Havana, Cuba, in 1898. The Olympia saw service through 1922.

The Navy ceded the 334-foot battleship’s title to the Cruiser Olympia Association, which restored the ship to her earlier configuration. It currently serves as a museum ship in Philadelphia, part of the Independence Seaport Museum.

The Olympia was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1966.

However, the Independence Seaport Museum has renewed its commitment to continue preserving the Olympia only through mid-2014, when custody transfer is expected to take place.

Kelly said two independent economic studies have shown that a local ship display such as the Olympia would operate in the black.

“Planning for the footprint of the Mare Island Museum and the dry dock area has progressed to the point where we now know that the footprint for the planned ship display will be significantly enhanced by other planned redevelopment features,” said Kenneth Zadwick, the foundation’s president.

Among those features would be converting Nimitz Avenue, the road that runs between Dry Dock 1 and the museum, to a public concourse to increase pedestrian access and encourage retail and waterfront use, Zadwick said.

In addition, several of the historic buildings next to the museum and Dry Dock 1 would be kept for appropriate uses in what he called “this ‘Old Town’ part of Mare Island.”

The two shipbuilding ways north of Dry Dock 1 would be used for a public launch of small boats, such as canoes and kayaks, while overhead cranes would be kept to preserve the area’s historic atmosphere, Zadwick said.

A ferry maintenance plant is being built on the waterfront near the museum, he said. “Once operational, this facility will include limited passenger on- and off-loading, and will connect our historic site with the city of Vallejo and the San Francisco Ferry Building and Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco,” he said.

Zadwick said the reports noted that Mare Island has about 100 businesses, more than 2,000 permanent jobs and 3.4 million square feet of occupied commercial space.

Kelly said the Mare Island Historic Park Foundation is a registered 501 (c)(3) nonprofit public benefit corporation, which means contributions are tax-deductible.

“Donations to support this historic venture are being sought to bring Olympia home,” Kelly said.

Those interested may visit the Mare island Historic Park Foundation’s webpage about the effort to bring the Olympia to Vallejo, www.mareislandmuseum.org/about/ships/uss-olympia/.

A short video about the project may be seen at www.youtube.com/watch?v=AD2sAZ4nQrI.