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This is very sad. I had no idea she was in such poor condition. I wonder what the new strategic direction of the museum is that it is ready to abandon the Olympia. I hope the Becuna isn’t next.

We'll have to see. A lot of the ship museums are in really bad shape right now. Patriots Point in South Carolina is in deep trouble. They gave up Ingham last year and the repairs to Laffey (she was closed off because she was sinking and needed constant high-volume pumping and a substantial amount of her hull plating replaced) apparently cost a lot more than expected. Clamagore, their sub is even worse off and there's now talk of the Navy repossessing the Yorktown and possibly sinking her as a reef.

Quonset RI was supposed to get the Saratoga for a museum, but could never raise the funds. She's now been pulled off the donation list and is about to be towed from Newport RI to Philly to prep for sinking or scrapping (Forrestal is due to arrive there today for the same purpose, I believe).

Just about the only big ship museums that are doing well are Intrepid up in NYC, Wisconsin in Norfolk (but the USN helps maintain her) and Missouri in Pearl Harbor. The rest are hanging in there, to varying degrees.

I had no idea . . . we visited the Yorktown over 20 years ago. She was an impressive sight. I can imagine maintenance is expensive, and if it’s been neglected, this is a bad time to find funding to play catch up.