Lowcountry group submits plans to move old warship

BEAUFORT, S.C. (AP) — Plans are moving ahead to bring the oldest steel warship still afloat to the South Carolina Lowcountry.

The Beaufort Gazette reports (http://bit.ly/qkYG5P ) a group of Beaufort residents this month submitted its plans for the USS Olympia to the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia.

The group hopes to move the warship from the Delaware River to a dry dock it wants to build on Parris Island. The hull of the 344-foot cruiser is deteriorating and repairs are so costly the Pennsylvania museum can no longer afford to keep it.

The warship was launched in 1892 and was used when Commodore George Dewey defeated the Spanish at Manila Bay in the Philippines in 1898 during the Spanish-American War.

The ship also saw service during World War I before being decommissioned in 1922.

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Information from: The Beaufort Gazette, http://www.beaufortgazette.com