With a need of $20 million, group hopes to bring 1890s USS Olympia to Beaufort

Image by Flickr user listentoreason The Olympia, currently at Philadelphia.

A story dated March 31 read "USS Olympia now on the market."

And the cruiser commissioned in 1895 already has a half-dozen interested takers, including a Beaufort-based "S.C. Olympia Committee" that hopes to secure the ship that was pivotal in the Spanish-American War and preserve it in dry dock on Parris Island. 

[The ship was the flagship of Commodore George Dewey at the Battle of Manila Bay.]

However, the ship has already seen more than $5 million in repairs and would need as much as $10 million more in immediate repairs and $10 million more to move it.

Ouch. 

The Island Packet has a nice report with some good local angles (read that here), and The Post and Courier also has a report that addresses some of the "making it a reality" questions better (read that report here).

And it doesn't help that South Carolina is already going through the pains of one financially ailing naval museum, Patriots Point. 

We'll be sure to keep you updated, and you can engage the group directly on their website.