USS Olympia: Herald of Empire (Hardcover)

~ (Author), Benjamin Franklin Cooling (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book will appeal to both naval ship buffs as well as those interested in the era of American expansionism and emergence as a world power." --Donald L. Canney, author of The Old Steam Navy

"This fully researched and highly readable book should grace the bookshelf of anyone interested in the naval history of the nation and ought to help fund to restore this historic cruiser that's still afloat." --Dave F. Trask, former chief historian of the U.S. Army Center of Military History --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Description

Until now there has never been a complete ship's biography of the sole survivor of America's new steel navy, USS Olympia. Part of a congressionally-mandated program to build a modern fleet prior to the turn of the twentieth century, the protected cruiser became famous as Admiral George Dewey's flagship at the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898 during the Spanish-American War and later returned the body of the Unknown Soldier from France after World War I. Today, the Olympia displays her traditional garb of "buff and white" as a naval shrine at Penn's Landing on the Delaware River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This is her story, told by a military historian who served as curator of the Olympia Association while earning his Ph.D. at the University of Pennsylvania.

B.F. Cooling presents a flesh and steel history of the pivotal warship that transitioned the eras of commerce raiding and battle fleet confrontation in naval warfare. To portray the life and times of this famous ship, he describes the captains who manned her bridge, the admirals who strode her decks, and the "swabbies" who labored behind the guns and in the infernos of fire-room and coal-passing details below decks. From her conceptual beginnings on drawing boards in Washington, through her construction by the Union Iron works of San Francisco, to her maiden voyage to the Far East and her moment in the sun at Manila Bay, Cooling gives readers a vivid picture of this "Queen of the Pacific" and pride of the fleet. But, fame was fleeting, and through the years Olympia has battled against age, scrapping, and the advent of big-gun battleships. Finally in 1954, a veteran's preservation group brought her out of retirement and began to restore her greatness. With this landmark study, the once shamefully neglected cruiser regains her position at the head of the battle line of America's historic ships.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 264 pages
• Publisher: Naval Institute Press; illustrated edition edition (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557501483
• ISBN-13: 978-1557501486
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,742,585 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars USS Olympia --Herald of Empire: Steer clear of this one!, December 17, 2000

By	Peter J. Espada (Falls Church, VA USA) - See all my reviews

If you are looking for a well-written, picture-laden documentary on one of the most famous of U.S. warships, I think you'd better keep looking. B.F. Cooling's "U.S.S. Olympia: Herald of Empire" was a HUGE disappointment. For those of us who are used to well-illustrated ship's biographies in the manner of the Squadron series or some of the other books in the US Naval Institute Series ("American Battleships 1886-1923" comes to mind), this volume will NOT satisfy. There was not a single ship's plan, elevation, rigging diagram, or side-by-side comparison; not a single map, not a single illustrative drawing--only a dozen or so poorly-reproduced, tiny, and fuzzy photographs of the ship and some of the men that served aboard her. Ship modelers beware--you and the Revell "USS Olympia" model are still on your own. In addition, the prose was overwrought and burdened with useless minutiae and excess detail, plus quote upon quote from diaries, news accounts, and personal recollections without streamlining or editing--all just thrown together. Most of this stuff was not needed and certainly not engaging enough to include. And the price of this book--way too much for what you get. My advice--steer clear of this one.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The USS Olympia Comes To Life!, April 28, 2008

By	Kevin M. DeVita "Old Movie Buff" (Long Island, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I recently went to see the USS Olympia berthed in Philadelphia. This was the third time I have gone to see this historic ship. Before going to see it this time I decided to read a book I received as a gift years ago. You guessed it, USS Olympia: Herald of Empire.

I wasn't sure what to expect as I cracked it open. To my delight the USS Olympia came alive. Cooling does an excellent job of using the diaries of enlisted men as well as many other sources to give you an idea of life aboard the ship. I felt like I was a part of the crew sailing around the Far East from port to port. This is as much a history of the men aboard the USS Olympia as it is about the ship itself.

Cooling takes you from the naval architect's drawing board and construction all the way to the present condition of the USS Olympia. In-between, you take a journey with the crew to the Far East station in the 1890's, to the Battle of Manila Bay, and then you eventually get to World War I (including intervention in Russia), with the journey of the Unknown Soldier across the Atlantic and ending with the restoration project of modern times. All the while you get a good idea of what life was like on the ship, on a yearly basis.

The book is not perfect. Cooling periodically gives figures about ship costs compared to other vessels (the USS Olympia was apparently an expensive ship to operate). This becomes tedious after awhile, but it was not enough of a bother to lower my star rating.

On the whole, this book was very pleasing to read and I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone with an interest in maritime, Spanish-American War, or even just general history. After picking this book up, I couldn't put it down.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ship Modelers Are Not Naval Historians, May 19, 2007

By	Donald J. Keck (Powder Springs, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Uss Olympia: Herald of Empire (Paperback)

I don't usually write reviews in response to other reviews. But the previous review is so unfair that I felt compelled to reply. Ship modelers are not the only, or even the primary, readers of naval history. "USS Olympia: Herald of Empire" is a very good history of a famous American warship, in the tradition of Tyrone Martin's "The Most Fortunate Ship: The USS Constitution" and Edward Stafford's "The Big E: The USS Enterprise." Its author, Benjamin Franklin Cooling, is one of our preeminent naval historians.

For anyone interested in naval history the absence of a multitude of diagrams and pictures is not a drawback. It may, in fact, be an asset. While I appreciate some appropriate photos, maps and perhaps a ship design, my real interest is in an historical text, which recounts the history of the vessel and the engagements it fought.

I have no interest in picture books filled with hundreds of photos and drawings with virtually no text about a ship's hisory. If, by mistake, I were to order such a book I would probably send it back for lack of interest. Others, of course, may, for their own reasons, find such a book fascinating. Chacun son gout.