Cruiser Olympia Hard Hat Tour April 6, 2019

Towards the end of March on their Facebook page the Cruiser Olympia, part of the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, posted a behind-the-scenes hard hat tour for $30. At the time I thought the price was a bit on the steep side but decided to jump at it. I made my first trip to this ship at the end of December 2018 and remember wishing I could go see what was below the publicly accessible decks.

I arrived early on a slightly foggy morning and took a stroll around to the other side of the ship to take the above photo. By the time I returned to the other side the two tour guides were ready to receive the tour participants. After the 11 or 12 participants signed a waiver we were each given a helmet which fit quite comfortably and did not interfere with my photography as much as I feared it would.

The tour guides (whose names I did not get and will update this blog entry if I am able to get them) did an excellent job of setting expectations on what conditions were like on the areas of the ship we would be going to as well as some areas that are physically demanding to access and the ability to individually opt out of those locations. Being partially deaf I appreciated that they spoke clearly and made sure everyone understood these points.

The tour was about three hours long and started from the bow and snaked up and down tight and steep stairs throughout the lower parts of the ship towards the stern and then went forward from there to the engine room and boiler room. My initial thought that the fee was a bit steep was proven completely unfounded. The tour guides, who clearly care a great deal about this ship, explained what we were looking at and answered questions at each stop.

There was a 10 foot vertical ladder which proved to be one of the two most physically challenging things for me. This was an optional thing but I correctly figured I would be kicking myself if I didn’t at least try. With the patient help of the tour guides and the other tour members I made it down and back. Regrettably it did not occur to me to get a photo of it.

The other was a small hole above 3 vertical rungs inside a coal bunker that leads to the deck above. Shown above is the underside and topside of this hole. This was so challenging that it took three of the other tour members to pull me through! I am sure I made a loud popping sound! Fortunately this was not a required part of the tour – I could have accompanied one of the two tour guide back the way we came. There was a brief pause in the tour as we were encouraged to wash our hands as we had been crawling on the floor.

We continued through several more areas, stopping along the way for the guides to describe what we are looking at and to allow for photos. More climbing down stair cases and being careful of our footing we reached the steering equipment room. Every spot of this ship is utterly fascinating at this room is no different.

Turning around and moving forward again we made our way to the amazing engine room which is a place of beauty for those who love machinery, especially antique machinery! Steampunk fans will hardly know which way to turn their head with so many amazing things to see in here!

The final stop before the conclusion of the tour is the boiler room just ahead of the engine room. It would be difficult to imagine spending a 4 hour shift shoveling coal into the fireboxes! Between the size of the boiler rooms and the engine rooms it is easy to see how this ship could reach its guaranteed speed of 21 knots. She had been known to go even faster!

The tour concluded back where we started with a well deserved round of applause for the excellent guides! We were all dirtier for having crawled around this beautiful ship and at least I was sore and tired (and still am as of this writing the next day!) but it was clear that $30 was but a pittance to pay for such a wonderful experience!

Keep an eye on the Cruiser Olympia Facebook page for announcements on future tours. Also follow the Independence Seaport Museum of which she is a part of as well as the Submarine Becuna. Check the webpage of the museum for information on visiting. More photos I took in and around this ship can be seen here.

See my videos at YouTube! See my photos at Flickr! Follow me on Facebook and Twitter! Check out more of my blogs!