8/22/2023 0 Comments Washington navy yard civil warThe battles in Hampton Roads spurred changes in naval technology around the world. In March 1862, world wide attention focused on the battles between the VIRGINIA and the wooden Union ships USS CONGRESS and USS CUMBERLAND and the federal ironclad USS MONITOR. It was in this yard that the partly burned steam frigate USS MERRIMACK was converted by the Confederates into the CSS VIRGINIA. Dry Dock 1, now a national historic landmark, is still in use. The first dry dock in the western hemisphere opened here on Jby hosting the 74-gun ship-of-the-line USS DELAWARE. One hundred more ships slid down the ways here before the yard completed its last ship, a wooden minesweeper, in 1953. frigate USS CHESAPEAKE, a sister ship of the USS CONSTITUTION and one of the first six ships to be built for the U.S. It has never borne the name of its home city of Portsmouth.ĭuring its more than 230 years, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard has assisted the nation in winning nine major wars, putting an end to piracy, sending the Great White Fleet around the world, scientifically exploring the Pacific, and opening Japan to American trade.īuilt here in 1794-99 was the U.S. Known for most of its first century as "Gosport", it was renamed "Norfolk" in 1862 after the largest city in the area. Navy's oldes t shipyard and actually predates the United States Navy Department by 31 years. This former colonial shipyard became the Navy's nucleus in the Hampton Roads area where the largest naval base in the world has developed. While being operated by Virginia, in 1779, the shipyard was burned by the British. All his properties were confiscated by the Colony of Virginia. When the American Revolution began in 1775, Sprowle chose to remain loyal to the Crown and fled the area aboard the Royal Governor's flagship. The shipyard developed and prospered as both a naval and merchant shipyard. On NovemAndrew Sprowle, a merchant and ship owner, established the Gosport Shipyard on the western shore of the Elizabeth River under the British flag.
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