Keeping History Afloat: A Study of the Preservation of the Museum Ship Olympia

Abstract

Historic ships are crucial to understanding maritime and naval history. The preservation of working vessels and museum ships of historical significance is necessary to ensure their continued availability for public interaction, education, and appreciation. Olympia is one such museum ship that not only possesses an illustrious naval service record, but also provides the public with diverse opportunities to appreciate and interpret its significant contributions to maritime history. This vessel also has an extensive and unique preservation history as the oldest steel warship that remains afloat in the world. This study comparatively analyzes the many preservation strategies employed on Olympia. More specifically, it seeks to evaluate these strategies with regard to the standardization of historic vessel preservation established by the Secretary of the Interior and the National Park Service in 1990, and to show how this standardization affected and continues to affect the preservation of Olympia in comparison to past efforts. Olympia is an ideal case study for this analysis, as it received both pre-standardized and standardized preservation treatment.