9. USS Olympia joined the expedition to Arkhangelsk
USS Olympia was a venerable veteran of naval action when World War I began. The ship had been the flagship of the American squadron which crushed the Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish American War, and it was on its bridge that Admiral Dewey uttered his famous order, “You may fire when ready, Gridley” to its captain during that engagement. During World War I the armored cruiser was no match for the frontline warships of any of the contending powers, and was relegated to patrol duties in the Atlantic, Mediterranean, Adriatic, and Black Seas through most of the conflict.
It was Olympia which served as the main escort of the American expedition to Northern Russia, which became known as the Polar Bear Expedition, and the ship remained to support operations in Arkhangelsk and Murmansk during the early days of the operation before being withdrawn to other duties, with Britain’s Royal Navy assuming the role of nautical support. By the time the Polar Bear Expedition officially disbanded Olympia was patrolling once again in the Adriatic. Olympia’s deployment to North Russia was the extent of the involvement of the US Navy in the Atlantic portion of the Russian Intervention, but further activities took place in the Pacific which, as did most of the events at the end of World War I, had a significant impact on the political situation which led to World War II.