Logbook of the USS Olympia - May 1, 1898
The document displayed below is from the logbooks of the USS Olympia. On May 1, 1898, the flagship USS Olympia, accompanied by seven U.S. Navy cruisers and gunboats, sailed to Manila Bay under the command of Commodore George Dewey. There, the USS Olympia fired the opening shots of the Spanish–American War and, in a matter of hours, “destroyed” the Spanish Fleet. The Battle at Manila Bay not only marked a pivotal naval engagement but also solidified the United States’s emergence as a dominant naval force on the world stage.
The National Archives in Washington, DC, houses logbook records of the United States Navy, ca. 1801–1940, in Record Group 24: Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel. Logbooks, also referred to as Captain's Logs or Deck Logs, consist of chronological entries documenting the daily activities of a Navy ship or unit. Learn more about U.S. Navy Deck Logs
The National Archives in Washington, DC, also houses the logbooks for the United States Coast Guard and its predecessor agencies, ca. 1819–1972. Please note that the U.S. Navy and U.S. Coast Guard logbooks from the Vietnam War era have been digitized in full and are currently being uploaded to the National Archives Catalog. Learn more about the scanning of Vietnam-era Deck Logs
Logbook of the USS Olympia - May 1, 1898. National Archives Identifier: 148847615
View and download the USS Olympia - May 1, 1898 logbook on the National Archives Catalog. You can explore more of our holdings by visiting our online Catalog or by visiting the National Archives in Washington, DC. This record is located with Record Group 24: Records of the Bureau of Naval Personnel, Series: Logbooks of U.S. Navy Ships, ca. 1801–1940, File Unit: USS Olympia, 02/01/1898–07/31/1898. Many of the records in this collection have yet to be digitized. We encourage researchers to visit us onsite to explore these records and learn more about the archival collections held in the National Archives in Washington, DC.