Editing Norfolk Naval Shipyard (section)

==History==

===British control===
The '''Gosport Shipyard''' was founded on November 1, 1767, by [[Andrew Sprowle]] on the western shore of the [[Elizabeth River (Virginia)|Elizabeth River]] in [[Norfolk County, Virginia|Norfolk County]] in the [[Virginia colony]].<ref>Sharp, John G.M., Andrew Sprowle, 1710–1776, "Lord of Gosport", http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/asprowle.html</ref> 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 which confiscated all of his properties, including the shipyard. Following Governor Dunmore's retreat from Portsmouth in May 1776, Sprowle was exiled along with other Royalists to Gwynn's Island (now Mathews County, Virginia), where he died 29 May 1776 and was buried in an unmarked grave.<ref>''Naval Documents of the American Revolution, American Theatre'' volume 5, editor, William James Morgan (Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.), 9, https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/nhhc/research/publications/naval-documents-of-the-american-revolution/NDARVolume5.pdf p566</ref><ref>Sharp, John G.M., Andrew Sprowle, 1710–1776, "Lord of Gosport", http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/asprowle.htm{{Dead link|date=December 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> In 1779, while the newly formed [[Commonwealth of Virginia]] was operating the shipyard, it was burned by British forces during the [[Chesapeake raid]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Nobles|first=Robert|title=NNSY History|url=http://www.navsea.navy.mil/shipyards/norfolk/History/Home.aspx|publisher=NAVSEA|access-date=11 November 2012|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120918030150/http://www.navsea.navy.mil/shipyards/norfolk/History/Home.aspx|archive-date=18 September 2012}}</ref>

===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|1799|6}}, one of the first six [[Sailing frigate|frigates]] authorized by Congress, was laid, making her the first ship built in Gosport for the [[U.S. Navy]].{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

The federal government purchased the shipyard from Virginia in 1801 for $12,000. This tract of land measured {{convert|16|acre|m2}} and now makes up the northeastern corner of the current shipyard. In 1827, construction began on the first of what would be the first two [[dry dock]]s in the United States. The first one was completed three weeks ahead of similar projects in both [[Boston]] and South America, making it the first functional dry dock in the Americas. [[Drydock Number One, Norfolk Naval Shipyard|Dry Dock One]], as it is referred to today, is still operational and is listed as historical landmark in [[Portsmouth, Virginia]]. [[Quarters A, B, and C, Norfolk Naval Shipyard|Officer's Quarters A, B, and C]] were built about 1837. Additional land on the eastern side of the Elizabeth River was purchased in 1845.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

[[File:Regulations for Gosport Navy Yard 1800 written by Josiah Fox.jpg|thumb|These regulations for the operation of the Gosport [Norfolk] Navy Yard were composed by [[Josiah Fox]], Navy Constructor and Superintendent Gosport Navy Yard 1800]]

The shipyard and neighboring towns suffered from a severe [[yellow fever]] epidemic in 1855, which killed about a quarter of the population, including [[James Chisholm (priest)|James Chisholm]], whose account was published shortly after his death in the epidemic.<ref>''The United States Navy's Response to the 1855 Yellow Fever Epidemic'', National Museum of the United States Navy, https://www.history.navy.mil/content/dam/museums/nmusn/Pamphlets/usn-response-1855-flu-epidemic/United%20States%20Navy%20Response%20to%20the%201855%20Yellow%20Fever.pdf</ref>[[File:Norfolk Navy Yard, station log entries, 19 -20 August 1850.jpg|thumb|United States Navy, Norfolk Naval Shipyard, station log, entries,19-20 August 1850.The Log provided a record of weather data, daily work assignments for white and black employees, naval and commercial vessels entering and departing shipyard. Black employees during the antebellum era were often enslaved laborers.]]

=== Enslaved labor===
Enslaved labor was extensively utilized in the Norfolk Navy Yard from its foundation until the Civil War. An example of such use is found in Norfolk Navy Yard Commandant, Commodore John Cassin's [[John Cassin (naval officer)]] 29 April 1818  letter to the Secretary of the Navy, [[Benjamin W. Crowninshield]]. Cassin began his letter, by stating as justification "Finding it absolutely impossible  to do the labor required in this Yard, without taking in some black men in consequence of the white men sporting with their time in the manner they do, leaving the yard, since the month of April come in, there has Sixty four men, laborers left the yard, some gone to Old Point to work where greater wages is given and others gone to sea... I have therefore  taken in twenty four blacks for the purpose of discharging & loading such vessels as may be ordered and cleaning the frigate Constitution's hold."<ref>John Cassin to the Secretary of the Navy, 29 April 1818, Letters Received by the Secretary of the Navy (Captains Letters) 1805–1861, Volume 58, Letter 36, Roll 0058, Record Group 260, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington D.C.</ref>   Some idea of the human scale can be found in this excerpt from a letter of Commodore [[Lewis Warrington (United States Navy officer)|Lewis Warrington]] dated 12 October 1831 to the [[Board of Navy Commissioners]] (BNC).<ref>Sharp, John G., Commodore Lewis Warrington to the Board of Navy Commissioners re: employment of enslaved workers in the construction of the Dry Docks 12 October 1831, http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/nnysharp13.html</ref> Warrington's letter to the BNC was in response to various petitions by white workers to curtail or end enslaved labor on the Dry Dock. His letter attempts both to reassure the BNC in light of [[Nat Turner's Rebellion]] which occurred on 22 August 1831 and to serve as a reply to the Dry Dock's stonemasons who had quit their positions and accused the project chief engineer, [[Loammi Baldwin Jr.]], of the unfair hiring of enslaved labor in their stead.<ref>Tomlins, Christopher L. ''In Nat Turner’s Shadow Reflections on the Norfolk Dry Dock Affair 1830-1831'', Labor History, Vol 33, Fall 1992, Number 4, p.498., accessed 19 September 2020, http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/nnytomlins.pdf</ref><ref>Tomlins, Christopher, ''In the Matter of Nat Turner A Speculative History'',(Princeton University Press:Princeton,2020), p.161.</ref>

<blockquote>There are about two hundred and forty six blacks employed in the Yard and Dock altogether; of whom one hundred and thirty six are in the former and one hundred ten in the latter – We shall in the Course of this day or tomorrow discharge twenty which will leave but one hundred and twenty six on our roll – The evil of employing blacks, if it be one, is in a fair and rapid course of diminution, as our whole number, after the timber now in the water is stowed, will not exceed sixty; and those employed at the Dock will be discharged from time to time, as their services can be dispensed with – when it is finished, there will be no occasion for the employment of any.</blockquote>

<ref>Sharp, John G., ''Commodore Lewis Warrington to the Board of Navy Commissioners re: employment of enslaved workers in the construction of the Dry Docks 12 October 1831'', http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/nnysharp.html accessed 7 October 2021</ref> Despite such promises, enslaved labor continued, and, as of October 1832, Baldwin reported of the 261 men employed on the Dry Dock, 78 of whom, were enslaved black laborers or 30% of the Dry Dock workforce.<ref>Tomlins, 2020, p.164.</ref> Opposition to enslaved labor was never able to effectively challenge the status quo and suggestions or recommendations to end the practice met fierce resistance. One such effort in 1839, was countered by a petition signed by 34 shipyard slaveholders, pleading with the Secretary of the Navy to continue it less they suffer economic harm. Their successful petition was endorsed by Commodore Lewis Warrington. Warrington noted: "I beg leave to state, that no slave employed in this yard, is owned by a commissioned officer, but that many are owned by the Master Mechanicks & workmen of the yard". He added; “I beg leave to state, that no slave is allowed to perform any mechanical work in the yard, all such being necessarily reserved for the whites; this keeping up the proper distinction between the white men & slave”.<ref>Sharp, John G.M., ''A Norfolk Navy Yard Slaveholders Petition to the Secretary of the Navy, June 21, 1839'' Norfolk Navy Yard 2019, http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/nnysharp6.html</ref> In 1846 Commodore [[Jesse Wilkerson]] felt the need to confirm the continuation of slave hiring to the Secretary of the Navy [[George Bancroft]], “that a majority of them [blacks] are negro slaves, and that a large portion of those employed in the Ordinary for many years, have been of that description, but by what authority I am unable to say as nothing can be found in the records of my office on the subject – These men have been examined by the Surgeon of the Yard and regularly Shipped [enlisted] for twelve months" <ref>Sharp, John G.,''List of Gosport Navy Yard Employees Military and Civilian, 1846'' http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/nnysharp13.html, retrieved 7 October 2021</ref>

[[File:George Teamoh 1818 to after 1887 LOC photo.jpg|thumb|[[George Teamoh]] 1818 to after 1887. George Teamoh worked at Norfolk Navy Yard as an enslaved laborer and ship caulker in the 1830s and 1840s (LOC photo)]] [[George Teamoh]] (1818–1883) as a young enslaved laborer and ship caulker worked at Norfolk Navy Yard in the 1830s and 1840s and later wrote of this unrequited toil: "The government had patronized, and given encouragement to slavery to a greater extent than the great majority of the country has been aware. It had in its service hundreds if not thousands of slaves employed on government works."<ref>''God Made Man, Man Made the Slave: The Autobiography of George Teamoh'' editors F.N. Boney, Richard L. Hume and Rafia Zafar Mercer University Press: Macon 1990, p.83.</ref> As late "as 1848 almost one third of the 300 workers at the Gosport (Norfolk) Navy Yard were hired slaves."<ref>Starobin, Robert S. ''Industrial Slavery in the Old South'', Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1975 p.32.</ref><ref>Sharp, John G.M., ''Station Log Entries for U.S. Naval Station  Gosport 1850'', http://www.usgwarchives.net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/sharptoc/gosportlog.html</ref>

===American Civil War===
[[File:Virginia, Norfolk Navy Yard, Ruins of - NARA - 533292.tif|thumb|left|Ruins of the shipyard after the Civil War, 1864; photo by James Gardner. From the collection of the [[National Archives and Records Administration]].]]
In 1861, Virginia joined the [[Confederate States of America]]. Fearing that the Confederacy would take control of the facility, the shipyard commander [[Charles Stewart McCauley]] ordered the burning of the shipyard on 21 April 1861.<ref name=NYTimes>{{cite news |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=24 April 1861 |title=BURNING OF GOSPORT NAVY-YARD; Eleven Vessels Scuttled and Burned, The Steam Tug ''Yankee'' Tows the ''Cumberland'' to Sea, Norfolk Not on Fire. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1861/04/24/archives/burning-of-gosport-navyyard-eleven-vessels-scuttled-and-burned-the.html |work=[[The New York Times]] |location=New York City |access-date=2 August 2022 |quote=The Government vessels had been scuttled in the afternoon before the [[USS Pawnee (1859)|''Pawnee'']] arrived, to prevent their being seized by the Secessionists… The following are the names of the vessels which were destroyed: [[USS Pennsylvania (1837)|''Pennsylvania'']], 74 gun-ship; steam-frigate [[USS Merrimack (1855)|''Merrimac'']], 44 guns; sloop-of-war [[USS Germantown (1846)|''Germantown'']], 22 guns; sloop [[USS Plymouth (1844)|''Plymouth'']], 22 guns; frigate [[USS Raritan (1843)|''Raritan'']], 45 guns; frigate [[USS Columbia (1836)|''Columbia'']], 44 guns; [[USS Delaware (1820)|''Delaware'']], 74 gun-ship; [[USS Columbus (1819)|''Columbus'']], 74 gun-ship; [[USS United States (1797)|''United States'']], in ordinary; brig [[USS Dolphin (1836)|''Dolphin'']], 8 guns; and the powder-boat… [plus] line-of-battle ship [[List of ships of the line of the United States Navy|''New-York'']], on the stocks… Large quantities of provisions, cordage and machinery were also destroyed — besides buildings of great value — but it is not positively known that the [[Drydock Number One, Norfolk Naval Shipyard |[dry] dock]] was blown up.}}</ref> 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). He bluffed the Federal troops into abandoning the shipyard in Portsmouth by running a single passenger train into Norfolk with great noise and whistle-blowing, then much more quietly, sending it back west, and then returning the same train again, creating the illusion of large numbers of arriving troops to the Federals listening in Portsmouth across the Elizabeth River (and just barely out of sight). The capture of the shipyard allowed a tremendous amount of war material to fall into Confederate hands.<ref name=Nank>{{cite web |url=https://www.battlefields.org/learn/articles/ready-war-union-navy-1861 |title=Ready for War? The Union Navy in 1861 |last=Nank |first=Thomas E. |date=23 August 2021 |website=www.battlefields.org |publisher=American Battlefield Trust |access-date=18 August 2022 |quote=The Union's naval infrastructure was dealt a crippling blow on April 20, 1861, when the ill-conceived and botched evacuation of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard at Gosport, Virginia, led to the Confederate capture of over 1000 naval guns, [[Drydock Number One, Norfolk Naval Shipyard|irreplaceable dry dock]], and repair facilities. Eight [operational] warships, including the steam frigate [[USS Merrimack (1855)|USS ''Merrimack'']], were also surrendered.}}</ref> 1,195 heavy guns were taken for the defense of the Confederacy, and employed in many areas from [[Hampton Roads]] all the way to [[Fort Donelson]] Tennessee, [[Siege of Port Hudson|Port Hudson]], and [[Fort DeRussy (Louisiana)|Fort DeRussy]], Louisiana. The [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]] forces withdrew to [[Fort Monroe]] across Hampton Roads, which was the only land in the area which remained under Union control.<ref name="page">{{cite book|title=Ships Versus Shore, Civil War Engagements along Southern Shores and Rivers|last=Page|first=Dave|year=1994|publisher=Rutledge Hill Press|isbn=1-55853-267-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/shipsversusshore0000page}}</ref>{{rp|30}}

In early 1862, the Confederate [[ironclad warship]] {{ship|CSS|Virginia}} was rebuilt using the burned-out [[Hulk (ship type)|hulk]] of {{USS|Merrimack|1855|6}}. In the haste to abandon the shipyard, ''Merrimack'' had only been destroyed above the waterline, and an innovative armored [[superstructure]] was built upon the remaining portion. ''Virginia'', which was still called ''Merrimack'' by Union forces and in many historical accounts, sank {{USS|Cumberland|1842|6}}, {{USS|Congress|1841|6}}, and 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 1862.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

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 [[Norfolk County, Virginia|county in which it was located]], outside the city limits of Portsmouth at the time. This choice of name was probably to minimize any confusion with the pre-existing [[Portsmouth Naval Shipyard]] in [[Kittery, Maine]], near [[Portsmouth, New Hampshire]].{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

===Modern shipyard===
[[File:Shaping a ship’s plate at Norfolk Naval Shipyard 1941 (25824187944).jpg|thumb|Shaping a ship's plate in October 1941]]
[[File:Norfolk Naval Shipyard aerial photo in 1995.JPEG|thumb|Aerial view of the shipyard looking north towards Norfolk]]
From the [[Reconstruction era of the United States|Reconstruction Era]] until 1917, the shipyard was used both for ship repair and construction and for ship stationing; the current major naval base for the region, [[Naval Operating Base, Norfolk|Naval Station Norfolk]], did not yet exist.  As such, the then Norfolk Navy Yard served as the official [[Homeport]] for ships stationed in the Hampton Roads region.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

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 repaired.{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

After World War II, the shipyard shifted from being a ship construction facility to an overhaul and repair facility. Work on the {{sclass|Iowa|battleship}}, {{USS|Kentucky|BB-66|2}} was suspended in 1950.  Its last two ships, {{USS|Bold|AM-424|2}} and her [[sister ship]], {{USS|Bulwark|AM-425|2}}, wooden [[minesweeper]]s, were christened on March 28, 1953, during the [[Korean War]].{{citation_needed|date=August 2019}}

Currently, the shipyard is composed of several noncontiguous areas totaling {{convert|1,275|acre|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, [[submarine]]s, guided-missile [[cruiser]]s, and [[supercarrier]]s, 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 of the United States|East Coast]] capable of dry docking nuclear aircraft carriers. Another facility capable of drydocking such carriers is [[Huntington Ingalls Industries]] (HII), located on the other side of Hampton Roads in [[Newport News, Virginia|Newport News]], which is the only U.S. shipyard that currently builds and refuels nuclear aircraft carriers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=AIRCRAFT CARRIERS |url=https://hii.com/what-we-do/capabilities/aircraft-carriers/ |access-date=2024-02-14 |website=HII |language=en-US}}</ref>