Norfolk Naval Shipyard

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Aerial View of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard

The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, often called the Norfolk Navy Yard, is a U.S. Navy facility in Portsmouth, Virginia, for building, remodeling, and repairing the Navy's ships. It's the oldest and largest industrial facility that belongs to the U.S. Navy, and it's also the most multifaceted. Located on the Elizabeth River, the yard is just a short distance upriver from its mouth at Hampton Roads. The name was changed from Gosport Shipyard in 1862.

1 History
- 1.1 British control
- 1.2 American control
2 American Civil War
- 2.1 Modern shipyard
3 Notable ships
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

[edit] British control

The Gosport Shipyard was founded on November 1, 1767 by Andrew Sprowle on the western shore of the Elizabeth River in Norfolk County in the Virginia Colony. This shipyard became a prosperous naval and merchant facility for the British Crown. In 1775, at the beginning of the American Revolution, Sprowle stayed loyal to the Crown and fled Virginia, which confiscated all of his properties, including the shipyard. In 1779 while the newly formed Commonwealth of Virginia was operating the shipyard, it was burnt by the British troops.

[edit] American control

In 1794, United States Congress passed "An Act to Provide a Naval Armament," allowing the Federal Government to lease the Gosport Shipyard from Virginia. In 1799 the keel of USS Chesapeake, a sister ship to Constitution, was laid, making her the first ship built in Gosport for the U.S. Navy.

The federal government purchased the shipyard from Virginia in 1801 for $12,000. This tract of land measured 16 acres (65,000 m²) and now makes up the northeastern corner of the current shipyard. In 1827, construction began on of one of the first two dry docks in the United States. Additional land on the eastern side of the Elizabeth River was purchased in 1845.

[edit] American Civil War

In 1861, Virginia joined the Confederate States of America. Fearing that the Confederacy would take control of the facility, the shipyard commander ordered the burning of the shipyard. The Confederate forces did in fact take over the shipyard, and did so without armed conflict through an elaborate ruse orchestrated by civilian railroad builder William Mahone (then President of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad and soon to become a famous Confederate officer). The Union forces withdrew to Fort Monroe across Hampton Roads, which was the only land in the area which remained under Union control.

In early 1862, the Confederate ironclad warship CSS Virginia was rebuilt using the burned-out hulk of USS Merrimack. In the haste to abandon the shipyard, the Merrimack had only been destroyed above the waterline, and an innovative armored superstructure was built upon the remaining portion. The Virginia, which was still called the Merrimack by Union forces and in many historical accounts, engaged the Union ironclad USS Monitor in the famous Battle of Hampton Roads during the Union blockade of Hampton Roads. The Confederates burned the shipyard again when they left in May of 1862.

Following its recapture of Norfolk and Portsmouth (and the shipyard) by the Union forces, the name of the shipyard was changed to Norfolk, after the largest city in the area even though the shipyard was actually located in Portsmouth. This choice of name was also probably to minimize any confusion with the pre-existing Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine near Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

[edit] Modern shipyard

For $3 you can go aboard the Lightship Portsmouth at the Naval Shipyard Museum.

No major expansion occurred at the facility until World War I when it was expanded to accommodate 11,000 employees and their families. The shipyard was again expanded in World War II, doubling its physical size, and greatly expanding its productive capacity. During its peak, from 1940 to 1945, 43,000 personnel were employed and 6,850 vessels were built.

After World War II, the shipyard shifted from being a ship construction facility to an overhaul and repair facility. Its last two ships, USS Bold and her sister ship, Bulwark, wooden minesweepers, were christened on March 28, 1953 during the Korean War.

Currently, the shipyard is composed of several noncontiguous areas totaling 1,275 acres (5.2 km²). Norfolk Naval Shipyard provides repair and modernization services for every type of ship that the U.S. Navy has in service, which includes amphibious vessels, submarines, guided missile cruisers, and supercarriers, although in recent years the shipyard has primarily focused on nuclear ships and nuclear support ships. The Norfolk yard is one of the few facilities on the east coast capable of dry docking nuclear aircraft carriers. Another facility capable of drydocking such carriers is Northrop Grumman Newport News, located on the other side of Hampton Roads in Newport News, which is the only U.S. shipyard that currently builds and refuels nuclear aircraft carriers.