{"id":1045,"date":"2010-10-29T09:32:57","date_gmt":"2010-10-29T13:32:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/?p=1045"},"modified":"2010-10-29T09:52:56","modified_gmt":"2010-10-29T13:52:56","slug":"ghosts-on-the-loose-in-the-uss-olympia-or-maybe-just-a-bid-for-tourists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/2010\/10\/29\/ghosts-on-the-loose-in-the-uss-olympia-or-maybe-just-a-bid-for-tourists\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghosts on the loose in the USS Olympia…or maybe just a bid for tourists"},"content":{"rendered":"

Color me skeptical, but I find it odd that they Inky runs a full article on the hauntings of the USS Olympia<\/a> now that the organization that runs it is threatening to close the site down in November<\/a>. Odd that the ghost article brushes past that fact. If you haven’t seen it, the USS Olympia <\/a>is a relic from the Spanish-American War and, along with its WWII-era submarine friend, the Becuna, a staple of regional class trips to the Philadelphia waterfront\/historic district. \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

“I’m a complete rationalist,” said Jesse Lebovics, manager of the Olympia and submarine Becuna for the Independence Seaport Museum. “I can explain most of it.<\/p>\n

“But [the ship] certainly has a colorful enough history that I think if something were to be around, it makes sense it would be around the Olympia,” Lebovics said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sure, Jesse, nice “but” there. I’d think a few ghosts would be mighty convenient for you though. <\/p>\n

I don’t necessarily blame the folks who run the Olympia for pitching this story. After all, we’ve seen Eastern State Penitentiary<\/a> go from moldering historical curiosity to one of the most popular “haunted” places in America by embracing the ghost tourist industry. (By day a historic gem, by night a history-making cash cow.) And the Independence Seaport Museum is still reeling from the scandal left behind by its former president, who ran the place as his own personal cash\/political favor machine. <\/p>\n

Apparently, the ISM has already pimped out the ship to the ghost TV reality show industry, a necessary first step, I’m sure, before they partner with a ghost tour outfit. That is, if they can put it together in time. According to previous reports, they’re looking to sell it for $20 million or they’ve threatened to sink it off the coast of Cape May. My thinking is that it will join the SS United States <\/a> and become another ghost ship of Philadelphia. <\/p>\n

Um, not in the haunted sense, but the abandoned, looming over Ikea sense…although the Olympia doesn’t necessarily loom over anything. <\/p>\n

You want to save the Olympia? Save the waterfront. May my father, a highway engineer since the 60’s, forgive me, but let’s get rid of I-95<\/a>. The idea is so mad it might work. <\/p>\n

UPDATE:
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

I can’t link it directly, but check out picture number four in the gallery. The caption says it all: “In recordings, Harry Burkhardt says, he has heard voices, including one that told him: ‘Save the ship!'” <\/p>\n

Harry, are you certain Jesse wasn’t whispering in your ear?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do ghosts haunt the USS Olympia, or is the Independence Seaport Museum looking for a new cash stream.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,6,17,3,12],"tags":[152,143,178,153,151],"class_list":["post-1045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dumb-thoughts","category-gregs-reference","category-pr-guy","category-rant-andor-rave","category-skeptic","tag-ghosts","tag-philadelphia","tag-skeptic","tag-tourists","tag-uss-olympia","post-preview"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7V2xo-gR","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1045"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1051,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1045\/revisions\/1051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lstr.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}