USS Olympia C-6 - 1.25:1 scale

Purpose: Constructed as a flagship and as an advanced battle cruiser meant to be able to hold its own even against battleships, and to use its speed to get in and out of dangerous situations quickly.


Looks best with my Coal War Texture pack found here: http://www.planetminecraft.com/texture_pack/1908---the-coal-war/

This project is a full scale representation of the famous protected Cruiser, the USS Olympia. The USS Olympia is a ship I have grown quite fond of, and I have spent hundreds of hours of work helping restore and preserve her as a museum ship on Penns Landing in Philadelphia.  Since lately I haven't had much time to spend on her (I only have free time after she closes due to school) I decided to make a model of her on Minecraft since I am suffering from Olympia withdrawal. The Olympia is in dire need of volunteers and donations, as well as she is in desperate need for dry-docking.  Her last dry-dock was in 1945, so the hull integrity at this point is looking grim.  I personally assisted in attaching a 16ft x 18in steel patch and gasket to the side of her hull to plug up a serious series of holes that were flooding a compartment of the ship.  I definitely recommend donating to and/or visiting this ship in the near future, she is one-of-a-kind!

The USS Olympia served from 1895 till 1922 as a US Navy vessel and still stands as a symbol of the development of the modern Navy. She had a top speed of 22 knots (25 mph), making her one of the fastest ships of her time.  Her two triple-expansion steam engines produced 8900HP each, her armor plating (located just above the lowest deck, called the "turtleback" was 4.75 inches thick of steel, and she contained the following weapons: 4 x 8inch/35cals rifled cannon, 10 x 5inch/40 cals rifled cannon, 14 x 6lbers, 4 x gattling guns, 6 x 18inch torpedo tubes, 6 x 1lbers, 271 trapdoor springfield handheld rifles, and ~85 Navy revolvers. Her crew contained 395 enlisted men, 33 officers, and 40 marines. Her unloaded tonnage was about 5800 tons.

Full details can be seen here, the official website: http://www.phillyseaport.org/ships_olympia.shtml

And on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Olympia_(C-6)
The Minecraft version of this famous ship is slightly different. She has the same amount of decks, the same general layout, and most of the same compartments as the actual USS Olympia.  However, since I have to deal with hulls 1m thick in Minecraft, many compartments were far too small to actually depict, and made for an excessively cramped ship.  I removed several small rooms, many coal bunkers, and all of the guns (except the turret ones) for this depiction. I also removed the davits and air vents, since they don't look at all right in minecraft.