HAUNTED ARMORED CRUISER

     RECEIVES GRANT

    FROM NATIONAL PARK SERIVCE

     "She was designed primarily for China service," says ship curator, Gus Johansen. "The Navy's Design Bureau knew that it needed something bigger than a gunboat when a bigger bang was needed, but a ship with a draft shallow enough to safely navigate the Yangtze River. The Borealis only draws 25 feet of water."

     Conceived, designed and built to enforce US Foreign Policy in the Far East, the U.S.S. Borealis had a long, distinguished career with the U.S. Navy, from 1899 and stretching through the mid-1920's.

     "She pulled North Atlantic convoy duty from 1917 to 1919, and made up the escort for President Wilson when he returned from the Versailles Conference," says curator Johansen. "In 1925 she was decommissioned and assigned as a Naval training and depot ship to the Philadelphia Navy Yard, where she served alongside her more illustrious predecessor, U.S.S. Olympia." The Olympia was Admiral Dewey's flagship at the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898, and is now a floating Museum in Philadelphia.

     According to curator Johansen, and the official History, the Borealis languished at the Philadelphia Navy Yard until 1946, when the Navy made plans to dispose of her. Curator Johansen smiles knowingly when asked how the old veteran managed to survive contribution to the post-World War II housing boom.

     "It was an oversight," he says. "The Navy simply forgot about her."

     She would have indeed gone for scrap had not Lt. Commander Martin Riorhdan, an Emmetsburg Native, returned from occupation duty in Japan to serve as assigned disbursements officer at the Navy Yard. He recognized the ship.

     "Riorhdan knew the ship and her history," says Johansen. "He also knew that her first captain was another Emmetsburg native, Commander Rodney Nelson O'Neil."

     O'Neil, who graduated from the University of Emmetsburg in 1871, and the U.S. Naval Academy in 1875, was the grandson of Major Sir Patrick Rodney O'Neil, who accompanied Emmetsburg founder, the noted British soldier, Irish scholar, humorist and naturalist, Colonel Emmet Kelly, to the northwest Iowa Territory on the latter's "Expedition of Foundation" in 1841.

     Commander O'Neil died tragically while serving with Admiral Dewey on the Hong Kong Station in 1901.

     "Apparently, he was in the ship's wardroom, getting a midnight snack," says curator Johansen. "He was reaching for some leftover Kung Pao chicken, when an improperly secured stack of Trieste salami broke loose, fell on Commander O'Neil, and killed him. I suppose it would have been humorous had the result not been so tragic."

     Lt. Commander Riorhdan arranged with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to transport the vessel in sections by rail to Emmetsburg, where she was then reassembled and refloated in Five Island Lake, to serve as a floating memorial and museum. The National Park Service agreed to administer the ship in 1952.

     While the warship has been and remains a popular tourist attraction, at least one local resident takes offense at the vessel.

     "It's that idiot at the University," growls Johansen. "Hilton Engels. To us and all the other area residents, she's a big piece of American and local history. To him, however, she's a 'symbol of rampant American gunboat Imperialism. He's over here at least once a month, trying to organize the interpretive staff into a 'Sailor's Soviet."

     "She'll continue to be based here at Stone Pier, accessible by the Great Stone Steps leading down from Lakefront Mall. Primary funding for her upkeep is still the .00 admission from tourists to go aboard her. We then take them on half-hour excursions on the lake. Last summer, we initiated a series of nightly theater cruises, from the end of June through the end of August. The Palo Alto Operetta Workshop performed 'HMS Pinafore", by Gilbert and Sullivan. As the final curtain is ringing down on 'He Is An Englishman', we fire a salute from the main 6 inch batteries. Blanks, of course," Johansen adds. "It was so spectacular and successful, we plan on repeating the program this summer."

     "The local American Consul needed to persuade some recalcitrant Nationalist officials to lower trade tariffs imposed on American businesses. When they balked, he ordered the ship's skipper to fire a few rounds over their heads." Johansen winks, "The tariffs promptly came down."

     "Officially, the United States Government and the National Park Service disavows belief in paranormal activities at any of its nationwide sights. However," he adds, "unofficially, yes. Myself and the other crew members have seen Captain O'Neil. And tourists report seeing a bearded man in white full dress officer's uniform on the bridge and in the wardroom. Since the interpretive staff wear turn of the century U.S. Navy uniforms, they assume he's part of the crew. Especially since he politely answers tourist questions and occasionally leads tour groups through the vessel. When he slowly fades and disappears at the end of the tour, they also assume he's some kind of holographic projection, like at Disney Land."

     When asked what he thinks the spirit of Commander O'Neil is doing, Johansen shrugs.

     "Personally, and unofficially, I think he's trying to find out who failed to properly secure those salamis. I think he wants to put him on report," says Johansen. "Commander O'Neil wasn't a vengeful man but he was always a stickler for regulations."