The Open Deck of the Cruiser OLYMPIA
By
Patrick McSherry
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Continuing forward, the visitor will find themselves on the open deck.
Interestingly, in spite of the size of the ship, there is very little
open space on the vessel's decks, as is evidenced here on the spar deck.
The visitor will see several items of interest in this area. Moving
forward, passed the engine hatch, and two steam winches. The steam
winches had a variety of uses. They could be used to aid in the raising
of the OLYMPIA’s sails, which were seldom
used, and also to raise and lower the vessel's cutters and boats. More
importantly, the winch would have been used to raise containers of coal
to fill the always-hungry coal bunkers.
The steam winch on the open deck
Continuing, the visitor will pass the funnels, and the ship’s bell, while
overhead are the racks to hold OLYMPIA’s steam
launches, cutters, dinghies and other boats. The boat davits remain in
place though at present, the boats do not.
On the left is the ship's bell. On the right is
one of the vessel's searchlights on its platform.
A search light on a raised platform remains in place on both the port
and starboard sides on the vessel. Searchlights had become crucial parts
of a vessel's defenses by the time of the Spanish American War. The main
task of these lights were to help in defending against a night attack by
a torpedo boat.
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