End of the line for the Love Boat: MS ex-Pacific Princess beached at Aliaga for scrapping (UPDATE#2)

[Cooley Hurd]

20. I think she's safe now - two groups are vying to move her to their cities:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Olympia_(C-6)#The_TAPP_Process

The TAPP Process
As a result of the summit, the Independence Seaport Museum (ISM) in Philadelphia is seeking another non-profit organization to assume stewardship of Olympia to provide for her maintenance and restoration. On 6 March 2011, the ISM published a Transfer Application (TAPP) similar to a Request for Proposals. Those who qualified to apply for the TAPP include domestic governmental organizations and not for profit organizations with valid 501(c)(3) (charitable) IRS status. There are several organizations from the East, Gulf and West Coasts who submitted applications to preserve and display Olympia. Only four were found to be acceptable from Pennsylvania, California, South Carolina, and Washington DC.

One TAPP applicant, an independent non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation known as Friends of the Cruiser Olympia, was organized in 2009 with the goal of preserving Olympia and opening her to the public as a floating historic and educational museum that would preserve Olympia's structure, history, heritage, and tradition as a national treasure. The Friends of the Cruiser Olympia hosted a dinner on 23 June 2011, in the historic Mike Mansfield Room of the U.S. Capitol to raise awareness of their efforts to save, restore and preserve the Cruiser OLYMPIA from destruction by neglect. Participants included representatives of the U.S. Navy, Department of Defense, Navy League, Naval Historical Foundation, US Naval Academy Alumni Association, key Congressional staff from the House and Senate Armed Services Committees and the Pennsylvania Congressional Delegation, the US defense industry, and the international community. With their support, the Friends submitted their TAPP application in September 2011 expressing their intention to keep her. The Friends application was found acceptable and the organization has begun preparations for Phase II of the TAPP process.

On 7 May 2011, the National Trust for Historic Preservation (NTHP) set up a national donation repository to allow donations received through it to be used directly for the much needed temporary and future hull repairs. The Independence Seaport Museum, although it is committed to giving up the vessel, will manage any repair work undertaken, should funds become available.

On 19 August 2011, the Mare Island Historic Park Foundation located at the closed Mare Island Naval Shipyard in Vallejo, California submitted an expression of intent to acquire Olympia. The Mare Island Historic Park Foundation has been operating for 18 years and currently operates two mansions, the oldest non-denominational chapel in the Navy, and a 50,000 square foot museum in the oldest building on the former shipyard. The Mare Island Historic Park Foundation intends to display the ship out of water in Mare Island's Dry Dock 1, a national historic landmark adjacent to the museum. By displaying the ship out of water, Mare Island Historic Park Foundations feels that future corrosion concerns with the hull will be eliminated and the venue will be enhanced by the ability to view not only the ship, but a historic graving dock as well.

On 13 October 2011, a bill was introduced in the House of Representatives that would require production of silver dollars commemorating Olympia. The cost of each coin would include a surcharge of $10, which would be used for the restoration and preservation of the ship.[51][52] The bill, HR 3180, names the Friends of the Cruiser Olympia as participants in the coin design and recipients of the funds raised to ensure Olympia's ongoing restoration and preservation.

As of May, 2013, only two organizations remain in the TAPP process: the Mare Island Historic Park and one from Beaufort, SC.