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diff --git a/old/55010-0.txt b/old/55010-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 0e9a7ed..0000000 --- a/old/55010-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3498 +0,0 @@ -Project Gutenberg's Charlestown Navy Yard, by National Park Service - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Charlestown Navy Yard - Boston National Historical Park, Massachusetts - -Author: National Park Service - -Release Date: June 30, 2017 [EBook #55010] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD *** - - - - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, MFR and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - - - - Charlestown Navy Yard - - - Boston National Historical Park - Massachusetts - - Produced by the - Division of Publications - National Park Service - - U.S. Department of the Interior - Washington, DC - - [Illustration: U.S.S. Constitution in Boston Harbor] - - - - - Contents - - - Part 1 The Making of a Navy 6 - Prologue 9 - Growth of the Yard 11 - The Coming of Iron and Steam 29 - The New Navy 45 - The Yard Transformed 63 - Part 2 Visiting Charlestown Navy Yard 78 - - - _Deep within Boston Harbor, Charlestown Navy Yard was birthplace, -repair center, outfitting base, and port of refuge for thousands of U.S. -naval vessels. This is the story of the yard, the ships it served, and -the people who kept them seaworthy._ - - [Illustration: _Boston Harbor; about 1870. Visible in the foreground - are Charlestown Navy Yard’s timber dock_ (left) _and dry dock_ - (center left, with docked vessel). _The ships anchored off the navy - yard piers are_ (left) _U.S.S._ Ohio, _the yard’s receiving ship - (for housing recruits and sailors transferring between vessels), and - U.S.S._ Wabash _“in ordinary” (that is, out of commission and in - storage)._] - - - - - Part 1 The Making of a Navy - - - [Illustration: _In 1803, U.S.S._ Constitution _was careened at a - Boston wharf for recoppering before sailing for the Mediterranean to - confront the Barbary States._] - - [Illustration: U.S. Naval Shipyards] - - - Puget Sound - Washington 1891-present - Rebuilt five battleships damaged during 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. - Mare Island - California 1853-1996 - Established for naval expansion into Pacific. - Hunter’s Point - California 1939-1974 - Repaired 600 ships during WW II. - Long Beach - California 1935-50; 1951-98 - Reactivated for Korean War. In 1982, modernized battleship New - Jersey for missiles. - Pearl Harbor - Hawaii 1900-present - Serviced growing Pacific fleet after Spanish-American War. Damaged - by Japanese air attack in 1941. - Mound City - Illinois 1862-74 - Repair facility for Union’s Mississippi Squadron during Civil War. - Pensacola - Florida 1825-1911 - Burned by Confederates during Civil War. Has served as air training - facility since yard closing. - Charleston - South Carolina 1901-96 - Specialized in the construction of destroyer escorts and LSTs in WW - II. - Strategically located Great Lakes shipyards built gunboats and sloops - during the War of 1812. - Presque Isle - Pennsylvania 1812-25 - Sackets Harbor - New York 1812-1870s - Washington - District of Columbia 1800-83 - Brooklyn - New York 1800-1966 - Portsmouth - New Hampshire 1800-present - Philadelphia - Pennsylvania 1801-1995 - Charlestown - Massachusetts 1800-1974 - Norfolk - Virginia 1801-present - Of the six original navy yards, only Norfolk and Portsmouth still - service naval vessels. - New London - Connecticut 1868-83 - During WW I was developed as major submarine base. - - - Prologue - -The U.S. government established Charlestown Navy Yard as the -newly-formed republic was meeting early challenges to its merchant -shipping. In the decade after gaining independence, the young nation -kept no standing navy. But continuing raids on U.S. commerce by Barbary -pirates and French privateers in the 1790s spurred Congress to authorize -the construction of new warships. - -Realizing that existing private shipyards were inadequate for the -increasingly ambitious shipbuilding program, the Secretary of the Navy -established in 1800-1801 six federal yards to build, outfit, repair, and -supply naval vessels. These facilities at Portsmouth, N.H.; Boston; New -York; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; and Norfolk, Va., were the nucleus -of the naval shipyard system. Except during the Civil War, they launched -most of the Navy’s vessels until the advent of steel hulls in the 1880s, -when private yards began building them in greater numbers. - -As with the first six, later naval shipyards were sometimes created to -fill an immediate military need. The War of 1812, for instance, prompted -the building of the two Great Lakes yards. The Mound City yard was -established during the Civil War, strategically located near the -confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to build and repair Union -gunboats. Although U.S. naval vessels are today built in private -shipyards, four navy yards still actively serve the fleet. - - [Illustration: _1833 view of one of the yard’s wharves, by William - Bennett. Beyond, decommissioned_ Independence _and_ Columbus _are - roofed over for protection_.] - - - Growth of the Yard - -When Captain William Bainbridge arrived in Boston aboard U.S.S. (United -States Ship) _Constitution_ in February 1813, he had reason to be -satisfied. While the U.S. Army faltered early in the War of 1812, a -string of naval victories over British ships was boosting public -confidence. Two months earlier, the big frigate commanded by Bainbridge -had engaged H.M.S. (His Majesty’s Ship) _Java_ off the coast of Brazil. -_Java_ was the faster ship, but _Constitution_ had heavier guns. By -skillful maneuvering. _Constitution_ kept them trained on the British -frigate, pounding _Java_ with broadsides until its colors came down. - -Crew and commander were met with parades in Boston, but Bainbridge had -little time to enjoy the acclaim. He was immediately faced with a task -that, if not as exciting as a sea battle, was nevertheless formidable. -He had temporarily relinquished command of the Charlestown Navy Yard -when he sailed on _Constitution_. While he was gone, Navy Secretary Paul -Hamilton charged the yard with building one of the nation’s first -ships-of-the-line—the battleships of their day. As things now stood, -that was an impossibility: Charlestown simply lacked the facilities for -such an undertaking. - -Bainbridge, who at 37 had already seen extensive naval action and been -imprisoned by Barbary pirates, wrote soon after becoming commandant in -1812: “No period of my naval life has been more industrious or -fatiguing.” He was shorthanded and hampered by bad weather, conditions -that must have sorely tested the endurance of a man with his -temperament: aggressive, volatile, not noted for his patience. When he -took command of the Charlestown yard, Bainbridge pressed the Washington -bureaucracy to authorize improvements to a facility that suffered, in -his words, from “mismanagement and neglect.” - - [Illustration: _Captain William Bainbridge was the Charlestown - yard’s second commandant (1812-15) and captain of the first ship - built there, U.S.S._ Independence.] - -Years later, Bainbridge was typically blunt in depicting for the -Secretary of the Navy what he saw as the Herculean task assigned him in -1812. The yard had been “in a state of perfect chaos. The public -property in a state of ruin and decay ... a boat could not approach at -certain periods of the tide within five hundred feet of the shore ... it -was even exposed to the inroads of the cattle from [the] highway.” - -Even allowing for Bainbridge’s penchant for the dramatic, his -description was accurate. The buildings were too few, too small, and in -need of repair. The timber needed to complete the repair of the frigate -_Chesapeake_ was decayed beyond use. But most pressing was the need for -a large stone wharf and building slip. Here was a naval shipyard that -could not service a sloop-of-war, let alone build a large frigate or -ship-of-the-line. Small vessels could tie up at the modest wooden wharf, -but the yard had to rent private wharves for repairing warships. -_Chesapeake_ had been languishing since 1809 in a rented berth at $1500 -a year. - -The commandant’s hilltop house surveyed 25 acres of scattered buildings -and grassy tidal flats directly across the “stream” (the Charles River) -from Boston. There was a marine barracks, a parade ground, carpenter and -blacksmith shops, a timber shed, a small hospital, a saltwater timber -dock, and piles of cannon, shot, iron, and ballast. The facility -Bainbridge took over in 1812 was in truth more supply depot than -shipyard. - -So why, after his exploits aboard _Constitution_, when another ship -command and the chance for further glory were his for the asking, did -Bainbridge return to Charlestown? Because he had also asked to command -the powerful 74-gun ship-of-the-line the yard would build, and he wanted -to oversee construction. - -On resuming command in March 1813 he lobbied again for a wharf and -building slip. As a well-known ship’s captain he was used to getting the -attention of the Navy Department. But his sphere of activity had shifted -from quarterdeck to desktop, and he had to watch coveted funds go to -ships bound for sea. He was not, however, one to hold his tongue. He -bombarded the Secretary of the Navy with letters (the tone of which, in -this and other matters, sometimes bordered on sarcasm) until the wharf -and slip were finally begun in April 1813. After the laying of the 74’s -keel in May, Bainbridge was relentless in his requests for more -improvements—a navy store, capstans for hauling out ships, “shears” (a -simple crane) for installing masts, a ropewalk. - -But his real passion was the great ship he could watch taking shape from -his window. He even suggested the name: _Independence_. Bainbridge -chafed to “give John Bull an opportunity of testing the strength of an -American 74”—especially after _Chesapeake_ had finally left the yard in -June only to be captured practically within sight of Boston by the -British frigate _Shannon_. - -The combative commandant was rarely put off by obstacles—or someone -else’s reputation. Having clashed with workers over compensation they -demanded for days lost to bad weather, he shut out the source of trouble -by ordering a shiphouse 210 feet long and 50 feet high built over the -74’s building slip. To oversee ship construction Bainbridge hired Edmund -Hartt and his son Edward—well-regarded Boston shipbuilders in whose yard -was built the hugely successful _Constitution_. But in a dispute with -Edward Hartt the angry Bainbridge grabbed him “by the shoulder and -carried him out of my office.” Hartt’s father quit in protest, whereupon -Bainbridge quickly engaged another shipbuilder to finish the job. - -Bainbridge’s other main duty as commander of the yard was the defense of -Boston Harbor—the importance of which was underscored by the -_Shannon-Chesapeake_ engagement. By spring of 1814 British warships were -raiding the New England coast almost at will, and the Boston citizenry -(many of whom vigorously opposed the war) was anxious over an -anticipated attack on the city. The rising 74, Bainbridge knew, made a -tempting target while it was unarmed and immobile on the ways. He asked -for the New England Guards, a Boston militia company, to stand ready at -the yard as _Independence_ neared completion. - -Guarding United States property at the Charlestown yard was normally the -responsibility of the U.S. Marines, stationed there since 1802. But it -was a small detachment, not enough to defend the yard and its ships -against a serious attack. Bainbridge, who earlier protested the -vulnerability of the yard, had other problems with the marines. Though -they were under naval command while at sea, on shore the Navy had no -authority over them. Bainbridge deplored this situation, complaining -that his inability to mete out the same corporal punishment to marines -as was used on sailors was “productive of insubordination.” - -In any case _Independence_ was ready for launching by June 1814. But the -much-anticipated ceremony on the 18th was an embarrassing failure. -_Independence_ hung up halfway down the launching ways, much to the -satisfaction of a Federalist quoted in the _Boston Gazette_: “It was no -wonder she stuck ... the war itself sticks.” The next day, when workers -attempted to move the vessel by winch with the New England Guards -pitching in to haul on the lines, a block flew apart and killed master -joiner William Champney. - - [Illustration: _U.S.S._ Independence, _built at Charlestown in 1815, - was the nation’s first ship-of-the-line. On its maiden voyage the - 74-gun vessel served as flagship of the Mediterranean squadron in - the Barbary Wars. After the Charlestown yard removed one gun deck in - 1835, turning the slow 74 into a fast, powerful frigate (above)_, - Independence _served as flagship of the Brazil and Pacific - squadrons. The frigate spent the last 60 years of its career as - receiving ship (temporary sailors’ quarters) at Mare Island Navy - Yard near San Francisco Bay, where it ended a century of service in - 1914._] - - [Illustration: _Ships-of-the-Line were the battleships of their day, - carrying 64 to 100 guns or more on two or three gun decks (below the - open decks). Ship-rigged (square sails on three masts), these - warships took their place in the line of battle in huge fleet - actions._] - - [Illustration: _Frigates had 22 to 44 guns on one gun deck. They - were ship-rigged counterparts of today’s cruisers, excelling in - single engagements and as commerce destroyers. Frigates also did - convoy duty and served as scouts for battle fleets._] - - [Illustration: _Sloops-of-War had 8 to 24 guns on an open deck and - were ship-rigged. Fast and versatile—the destroyers of their - day—sloops provided escort protection and harassed enemy shipping. - Their shallow draft made them useful in coast defense and in lake - squadrons._] - - [Illustration: _Brigs-of-War had about 20 smaller guns on an open - gun deck and carried square sails on two masts. Designed as small, - fast cruisers, they served as scouts, blockade runners, commerce - raiders, and in anti-piracy and slaveship patrols._] - -Then, to worsen an already grim situation, the British warships that had -blockaded Boston Harbor for over a year became an immediate threat. A -raiding party from the frigate _Nymphe_ rowed into the harbor in the -early morning darkness of the 21st and burned a small sloop within a -mile of the yard. The next day, with the charred remains of the vessel -tied up at a Charlestown wharf, the leader of the raid publicly taunted -Bainbridge. In an open letter in the _Boston Patriot_, Bainbridge was -warned to better defend his “unfledged Independence.” - -On the afternoon of June 22, under the eye of the Guards, the vessel -finally slid down the ways into Boston Harbor. The launching was -celebrated by a gun salute from _Constitution_ and cheers from a crowd -of 20,000. Bainbridge’s friend, the author Washington Irving, couldn’t -attend but wrote Bainbridge that he would drink a “potation bottle ... -to the success of your first cruise.” In the same spirit Bainbridge -entertained with food and drink 300 mechanics and laborers who had, he -said, “worked cheap, and done their work most faithfully.” - -But the war he wanted so badly to join remained out of Bainbridge’s -reach. Desertions, along with financial and outfitting delays, held up -the vessel until 1815, by which time peace with England had been -concluded. - -Another opportunity soon presented itself. The predatory corsairs of the -North African Barbary States—Tunisia, Tripolitania, Algeria, and -Morocco—had long been a thorn in the side of American merchant shipping. -Bainbridge, with _Independence_ as his flagship, won command of a -squadron whose mission was to display to the Barbaries the new power of -the U.S. Navy. The assignment was particularly attractive to Bainbridge, -who earlier in his career had surrendered a ship to the Tripolitans and -had another commandeered by the Algerians. But a second squadron under -Captain Stephen Decatur beat Bainbridge across the Atlantic and defeated -the Algerians in battle. His role was thus reduced to persuading the -other Barbaries at gunpoint to end their extortionist ways. The -suppression of the Barbary pirates was nevertheless satisfying to -Bainbridge. As senior officer, he had the honor of commanding the -squadron that initiated a permanent U.S. presence in the -Mediterranean—the first of the Navy’s “distant station” squadrons. - -Upon Bainbridge’s return to Boston he attempted to regain command of the -yard from his replacement, Captain Isaac Hull. Unsuccessful, he was -instead appointed Port Captain (“commander afloat” of all naval vessels -in Boston Harbor), with _Independence_ designated station flagship. -Bainbridge settled down to a career as a senior officer, serving as -commandant at the yard twice more in the 1820s and ’30s. He had helped -put Charlestown on the map as the builder of a major warship. More -significantly, after the War of 1812 the yard began building a -reputation as an important repair and supply facility. - - -The Charlestown yard, and the U.S. Navy itself, owed their existence in -part to the same Barbary pirates who occasioned _Independence’s_ first -cruise. The severing of ties with Britain during the Revolution also -meant the loss of protection from the Barbaries long provided by the -Mother Country’s powerful navy and by the “tribute” Britain paid them. -The United States had no navy to protect its seaborne commerce—so -essential to a coastal nation dependent on overseas trade—and the -treasury could not bear the tribute payments or the ransom demands for -captured ships and sailors. - -Thus after independence the Mediterranean trade had been virtually -closed to the United States. There was much unresolved debate about the -problem, but when the pirates spilled out into the Atlantic in 1793 and -took 11 American vessels in a few months, Congress took action. The -following year it authorized six frigates, three of which were launched -in 1797: _United States_, _Constellation_, and _Constitution_. - -Congress was spurred to finish the job by the actions of Revolutionary -France during its war with Britain. French commerce raiders so -terrorized American neutral shipping that in 1798 an angry U.S. -government created the Navy Department and prepared for war. (There were -a number of engagements at sea, but war was never declared.) Congress -authorized funds to build, borrow, or accept as gifts 49 vessels, -ranging from galleys to six 74-gun ships-of-the-line. - -The 74s were never built, but while the program was still alive, naval -shipyards to build them were established in Portsmouth, Boston, New -York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Norfolk. Boston, wrote Secretary of -the Navy Benjamin Stoddert to President John Adams, from “the natural -strength of its situation [meaning its large, deep, and defensible -harbor], the great number of ship carpenters in its vicinity, and of its -seamen, must always remain a building place and place of rendezvous for -our navy of the first importance.” Thus in 1800 the Charlestown Navy -Yard was established. - -For most of its history Charlestown’s primary mission was to keep the -fleet sailing. That is not to say the yard wasn’t a shipbuilder; it -built more than 200 warships over its 174 years of operation. But most -of the new ships were built to meet the immediate demands of war. (Three -quarters of them were launched during World War II alone.) For fully -half of those years no new ships came down the ways. The pattern -established in the yard’s early years was one of ongoing repair, -outfitting, supply, and conversion work punctuated by occasional new -launchings. - -The classes of ships that came down the ways at Charlestown and other -naval yards were the outcome of strategic and political deliberations in -Washington. U.S. naval policy devised during the first half of the 19th -century had its roots in the War of 1812. Before the British blockade -bottled up its warships, the tiny U.S. Navy had successfully fought a -brief _guerre de course_ against Britain, using a strategy that -emphasized single ship actions and raids on enemy shipping with -relatively small, fast frigates and sloops-of-war. The early naval -successes prompted Congress in 1813 to authorize six new frigates (three -of which were built) and six sloops. These, and the nine frigates -authorized in 1816 and laid down in the 1820s (including the -Charlestown-built _Cumberland_), formed the backbone of the Navy until -just before the Civil War. - -But the War of 1812, which helped shape a practical role for the -19th-century Navy, also led lawmakers into an expensive attempt to -compete with European navies on their terms. Using the argument that -large, powerful ships were essential to the defense of the nation’s -shores (and perhaps remembering the crucial role of French 74s at -Yorktown), Congress also authorized four 74-gun ships-of-the-line in the -1813 act. - -While ships-of-the-line were traditionally used in fleet actions with -set lines of battle (hence their name), they were also deployed to break -blockades and to “show the flag”—that is, remind other nations of the -United States’ military reach. Postwar nationalism, a popular navy still -basking in the nation’s praise, and the country’s demonstrated -vulnerability to blockade prompted appropriations in 1816 for additional -74s. - -Between 1813 and 1822 fourteen 74s were laid down, including -_Independence_ (1813), _Vermont_ (1818), and _Virginia_ (1822) at -Charlestown. But in the decade after the war strategists cast a -skeptical eye on such large ships. The expensive, provocative, and -easily outmaneuvered behemoths, they said, were only a drag on the -Navy—inappropriate for a young nation that wanted to stay out of -European conflicts. By 1825 only five 74s had gone into service. - -In 1835 _Independence_ took a turn in its career that was emblematic of -naval policy. The 74 had lain idle at Charlestown for 13 years. It was a -sluggish sailer, and its great weight and design flaws brought the lower -lee guns too close to the water to be useful during combat. So -_Independence_ was “razeed,” cut down from three decks to two, and -transformed from an unsuccessful ship-of-the-line into a very good -54-gun frigate—the largest and one of the fastest in the Navy. - -Only a few present at its 1837 recommissioning realized that -_Independence_ was also among the last of its kind. Fast approaching was -a technology that would displace naval sail; steam would drive the Navy -of the future. In 1839 the Navy’s first commissioned steamer—the -two-year-old harbor battery _Fulton II_—arrived at Charlestown for -repairs. A local paper called it “the oddest looking fish we have ever -set our eyes on.” Four towering stacks spouting black smoke rose from -the deck, on which were mounted engine cylinders four feet in diameter. -The sidewheel covers, likened to “immense fungi,” barely cleared the -sides of the dry dock. - - -With the dock and other improvements, the Charlestown yard had by the -1840s taken shape as an important repair and shipbuilding facility. The -dry dock (_see pages 40-41_), five years abuilding, had opened in 1833 -amid much ceremony. Vice President Martin Van Buren and other -dignitaries watched as the already-venerable _Constitution_, stripped -and demasted, inaugurated the dock. Much of the tidal flats had been -reclaimed behind a granite quay (the yard would triple its original size -by 1869), and the rest of the yard’s uneven grounds had been leveled. A -high stone wall, built to help stop pilfering and protect the ships, -stretched between the Charles and Mystic rivers. - -The yard had become more self-sufficient. The boilers for the dry dock -pump engines also provided steam for the new sawmill and blockmaking and -armorer’s shops. In 1837, the yard’s ropewalk (also steam-powered) and -tar house had been completed (_see pages 20-21_). The yard now made its -own paint in the “oil house,” while hardware was supplied by a large -smithy with 12 forges. - -Other significant additions: masting shears looming over the new shear -wharf; a sparmaker’s shed, masthouse, and sail loft; new timber docks; a -steam chest for bending wood; an armory with thousands of muskets, -bayonets, and swords; and neat ranks of guns, shot, and anchors in their -respective “parks.” Hundreds of elm trees planted by order of Commodore -Bainbridge softened the yard’s industrial setting. - -Anchored out in the harbor were several vessels “in ordinary.” A vessel -in ordinary was out of service and in storage with a skeleton crew until -recommissioned. The ship was demasted, salted to retard dry rot, -whitewashed inside, tightly caulked, and its sides and decks “payed” -with a thick coat of varnish and tar. Tubular windsails directing air -belowdecks and holes cut in the bulkheads insured good air circulation. -Some vessels in ordinary at Charlestown had protective wood and canvas -sheds over their decks, an innovation of Captain Hull. - -_Vermont_, _Virginia_, and the frigate _Cumberland_, begun in 1825, had -become permanent fixtures in their great shiphouses. They were still -officially under construction and near completion, but were really in -ordinary. (_Virginia_ was something of an ill-starred vessel. Over the -years at least three people had died in accidents around the ship, and -its reputation was reconfirmed in 1845 when a visitor fell to his death -from its scaffolding.) Construction on _Virginia_ and _Vermont_ had -slowed to a standstill after critics questioned the strategic value of -ships-of-the-line. But economic considerations played at least as big a -role; ordinary was a cheap way to keep expensive-to-sail vessels, -including big frigates like _Cumberland_ (launched in 1842), ready for -war. - -In 1848 _Vermont_ was finally launched to “a vast concourse of people -and the firing of cannons.” But the day of the big 74s was over. Neither -_Vermont_ nor _New Hampshire_ (built at Portsmouth Navy Yard), the last -two ships-of-the-line completed by the Navy, ever saw service as a -commissioned warship. In fact most 74s had short careers of little -strategic consequence. _Independence_, first of the class, was the only -one still serving as a warship at mid-century, but it had been cut down -to a frigate. - -The launching of _Vermont_ also closed a chapter in the yard’s history. -The second ship laid down at Charlestown 30 years before, _Vermont_ was -the last all sail-powered warship launched there—obsolescent even as it -came down the ways. - - -Although this was a U.S. Navy Yard run by naval officers, throughout its -history those wielding the caulking mallets and rivet guns were -civilians working for civilian foremen. During the first half of the -19th century the yard’s workforce steadily increased from 89 in 1822 to -370 in 1853. At mid-century the records show most of them were born in -New England—half from Massachusetts. Some 15 percent were Irish, the -majority working as laborers. - -So complicated an undertaking as the building of a warship required an -array of specialized occupations falling under the general label of -“mechanics”: carpenters, sawyers, joiners, sparmakers, blockmakers, -painters, gun carriage makers, armorers, sailmakers, blacksmiths, -caulkers, riggers, boatbuilders, coopers, ropemakers, masons, -machinists, plumbers, and coppersmiths. A force of unskilled laborers -was at times supplemented by the ordinary crews and by the sailors -stationed at the yard. - -Each shop had its master, quartermen (leaders of several crews), -leadingmen (crew leaders), and crews of mechanics, apprentices, -laborers, and a few boys (before child labor laws eliminated such -positions). In the early years, when the yard’s facilities were sparse, -it was not unusual for the master to have his own shop outside of the -yard. The commandant would in effect contract with the master to do the -work there with his own men. In the 1840s and ’50s the Navy tightened -the regulations, giving the masters less leeway in hiring and ordering -supplies. By the Civil War they were all yard employees. - -A look at the young men in the apprenticeship program, started in 1817, -gives a clearer picture of the yard employees they would become. Those -applying for the program—generally at age 16—had to show good character -and be physically able to perform the tasks of their trade. They had to -demonstrate the ability to read, write, and do simple math. The terms of -the five-year indenture (later reduced to four) were generally clear: in -return for exhibiting growing mastery of his trade, the apprentice -received from the Navy room and board, increasing pay, and continuing -education in reading, writing, arithmetic, and theories of the trade. -But because the indenture was technically a personal contract between -the boy’s parents or guardian and the master, not the Navy, questions of -obligation sometimes arose when a new man became master. At the end of -the apprenticeship—usually at age 21—the boy became a yard employee. - - _Continues on page 22_ - - - Navy Yard Tradesmen in the Age of Sail - -During the early 19th century, Charlestown’s shipyard bell called -several hundred civilian tradesmen and laborers to work each morning. -Laboring from sunrise to sunset under the supervision of naval officers -and civilian shop masters, these yard employees built, repaired, and -supplied United States warships for naval duty around the globe. -Fluctuating government budgets, changing seasons, and the uneven demands -of war and peace made navy yard work intermittent and unpredictable. - - [Illustration: A navy yard rigger tightens a warship’s mast - shrouds.] - - - The Ropewalk - -Several factors enticed the U.S. Navy into constructing its only -ropemaking facility at the Charlestown Navy Yard in the 1830s: skilled -labor, access to raw materials, and technical expertise. The port of -Boston already boasted more than a dozen ropewalks employing many -skilled artisans. Perhaps most importantly, the Navy was eager to take -advantage of newly developed labor-saving machines like those already in -use in New England’s textile mills. Because rope had to be twisted in a -straight line, the maximum length that could be produced was determined -by the length of the ropewalk (so called because workers spinning the -hemp fibers by hand walked the length of the building). The Charlestown -ropewalk’s quarter-mile length allowed production of rope up to 1200 -feet long. Designed by architect Alexander Parris (best known for -Boston’s Quincy Market), the ropewalk complex included the rope “laying” -area running the length of the building, spinning and preparing machine -rooms, the hemp house, and the tar house. The complex was powered by -massive steam engines and tended by men and boys. The Navy’s move to -mechanized rope production came at a critical time, as machine-spun rope -began to replace intricate hand-spinning techniques. The hand spinners’ -resistance inspired contests in the 1840s, in which they challenged the -quality of machine-made rope. The results of such a challenge to the -Charlestown ropewalk were somewhat ironic. Though its machine-made rope -proved to be stronger and cheaper to produce, hand-spun rope was -superior in the smaller sizes, and the mechanized ropewalk began -producing some hand-spun rope, doing so until the end of the 19th -century. - - [Illustration: Ropewalk, building] - - [Illustration: Ropewalk, machinery] - - [Illustration: Spinning Combed bundled fibers called “roving” are - fed from a can onto the spinning frame. At the spindle they are spun - counterclockwise into yarn, which is wound on a bobbin.] - - [Illustration: Forming the Strand Bobbins are mounted on the - twisting frame. The yarns are threaded through the register plate to - equalize tension and tied to a rotating hook on the rolling “jack.” - The jack pulls yarns from the bobbins and twists them clockwise into - a strand.] - - [Illustration: Laying the Rope Three or four strands are tied to - a rotating hook on the jack. While clockwise tension is kept on the - other ends by rotating hooks, the strands are twisted - counterclockwise into rope.] - -Budget-minded Naval Commissioners in Washington allowed the commandant -to pay just enough to hold on to his workers. He generally matched the -rates of private shipyards in the area to keep workers from being lured -away. The daily rates thus fell with the coming of cold weather and the -slowing of work, since the workers were then in low demand elsewhere. -The Navy defended this hard-nosed practice, maintaining that with fewer -daylight hours (workers mustered at sunrise and were dismissed at -sunset), the yard got less work out of the men. The niggardly pay -policies sometimes backfired: in 1821 the low-paid sailmakers left en -masse to work at private yards. - -More than the skilled craftsmen, the laborers’ jobs depended on the -amount of work at the yard, but most of the workforce awaited the coming -of cold weather with some anxiety. The yard’s practice was to retain -only as many people as it could keep working, and bad weather sharply -reduced the volume of work. The completion of a new ship or of a major -repair job also meant the letting go of large numbers of workers, at -least until the next job. In effect many in the workforce were not given -permanent jobs, but only hired on to perform seasonal work, much like -house carpenters, or to complete a single project. - -Though the situation was normally weighted in favor of the employer, the -scales could occasionally tip the other way, especially for skilled -workers. In 1825, when the coming of spring coincided with a surge in -building brought on by a recent Boston fire, Commandant William Crane -was forced to raise wages to compete for skilled workers. He sent his -Master Builder Josiah Barker up the coast as far as Portland to recruit -mechanics. - -At times skilled workers attempted to force the Navy’s hand, organizing -to protest conditions. When the caulkers struck for higher wages in -January 1835, the commandant, Commodore Jesse Elliott, fired them and -quickly found others willing to work at the established rate. Two days -later the “refractory caulkers,” unable to find work in the middle of -the winter, asked to be rehired at their old wages. Wanting to remain on -good terms with his employees, Elliott allowed the men to return. - -Sometimes the walkout worked. Yard workers considered unreasonable a -change in their working hours made in 1852. By this time they were -working a straight 10-hour day. But under the new policy, they had to -work sunrise to sunset if that period contained even a minute less than -11 hours, thus adding up to an hour to their day during the winter. They -walked off the job, forcing the Navy to rescind the policy. - -These actions represent a period when the yard workers, though not yet -unionized, could strike—an option later denied to government employees. -While workers were generally forced to accept the prevailing pay and -conditions at the yard, they were not completely without power. - -In the Charlestown Navy Yard’s first half-century, world events, U.S. -politics, and sectional rivalries affected the ebb and flow of work and -the hiring and firing of men. The yard was born in the midst of a world -at war and grew to prominence in a time of relative calm—in retrospect, -the lull before the storm of civil war. - - [Illustration: _Sloop-of-war_ (_U.S.S._ Decatur _or_ Dale) _dry - docked in Charlestown has its rigging tarred and its hull sheathed - with copper, about 1852_.] - - _Continues on page 29_ - - - Building a Wooden Ship - -The creation of a wooden warship began in the mold loft. There -carpenters translated specifications from standard plans for each class -of vessel into full-sized wooden patterns. These were used to fashion -hull members, for which white oak or live oak were the favored woods. -(Some 2,000 trees were required for a 74-gun ship-of-the-line.) On the -slightly inclined building ways, joiners first laid the keel, the great -spine of the ship running along the bottom of the hull. Then they -attached the stem and the stern post to the keel and raised the -frames—the vessel’s ribs. The frames formed the contours of the hull -and, together with horizontal deck beams and vertical stanchions beneath -the beams, provided a strong skeleton. After 1829, iron and copper bolts -and spikes replaced many of the wooden “treenails” that secured the -structural members and fastened the deck and hull planking. The rudder -was hung, the hull caulked and sheathed with copper to protect it from -teredo worms, and the ship was launched. Riggers then “stepped” masts to -the keelson, a lengthwise beam bolted to the keel (_see page 19_). After -they rigged the horizontal spars, cordage, and sails, the new warship -was ready for outfitting. - - [Illustration: _Expanding U.S. interests in the Pacific spurred - Congress in 1825 to authorize a new class of sloop-of-war to protect - those interests. Charlestown Navy Yard constructed three of them - between 1825 and 1827._] - - - 1 Building ways - 2 “Shears”: hoisted heavy pieces - 3 Keel - 4 Stern post - 5 Frames - 6 Deck beams - 7 Planking - 8 Drag chains: arrested ship after launch - 9 Shiphouse - - - The Workforce in 1835 - 138 Carpenters - 56 Ropemakers - 40 Laborers - 37 Joiners - 34 Blacksmiths - 25 Sailmakers - 19 Riggers - 18 Coopers - 17 Plumbers - 16 Boatbuilders - 14 Sparmakers - 12 Blockmakers - 11 Painters - 6 Caulkers - 6 Masons - 6 Sawyers - - - The Frigate _Constitution_ - -The first three warships ordered for the infant U.S. Navy in 1794—one of -them the Boston-built _Constitution_—were frigates unlike any others. -Naval strategists knew the nation could afford to build only a few -vessels, so they had to be formidable warships. They were inspired by -French “razees,” ships-of-the-line (_see page 14_) that had one gun deck -removed, transforming them into large, heavily armed frigates. The sharp -lines of _Constitution’s_ hull gave it a frigate’s speed, but in size -and stoutness it was comparable to a small ship-of-the-line. (Its heavy -oak frames, spaced close together and sheathed with thick planking, -proved virtually impenetrable in battle—hence the name “Old Ironsides.”) -The theory was that _Constitution_ would be powerful enough to fight any -frigate, quick enough to flee anything bigger. The British, though, -scorned the new frigates, asserting that they lacked the tactical -strengths of either frigates or ships-of-the-line: too slow to engage -the former, too weak to stand up to the latter. But _Constitution_ more -than lived up to U.S. expectations in the War of 1812, when it bested -two British frigates in separate battles, escaped two more, and captured -a frigate and a sloop-of-war in a third engagement. _Constitution_ -fought no more battles, but served honorably for another 40 years. -Throughout its career _Constitution_ has been closely associated with -the Charlestown Navy Yard, undergoing several overhauls there. The first -was in 1833, when the frigate inaugurated the yard’s dry dock. In -1992-95 it was serviced in the same dock. Since 1897 the yard has been -home port for _Constitution_, the Navy’s oldest commissioned warship. - - [Illustration: The 24-Pounder Long Gun - -A gun crew of 6 to 14 men wrestled with this 5,600-pound gun. To adjust -elevation, a crew member placed a handspike on one of the steps (A) and -levered the breech (B) up or down; the gun captain slid the quoin (C) in -or out.] - - [Illustration: U.S.S. Constitution] - - - Specifications: - Length overall: 204 ft. - Beam (width): 43.5 ft. - Displacement: 2,200 tons - Draft: 22.5 ft. - Hull: 15 to 20 in. thick - Speed: 13-14 knots - Crew: 450-470 - Armament in 1812: 30, 24-pounders; 22, 32-pounder carronades; two - 24-pounder & one 18-pounder bow chasers on the forecastle - - - 1 Quarter boat - 2 Quarterdeck - 3 Captain’s quarters - 4 Captain’s day cabin - 5 Officers’ staterooms - 6 Bread room - 7 Ship’s wheel - 8 Wardroom - 9 Cartridge filling room - 10 Powder magazine - 11 Spirit room - 12 Cockpit (junior officers’ quarters) - 13 Anchor capstan - 14 Bilge pumps - 15 Shot locker - 16 Spar deck (open) - 17 Gun deck - 18 Berthing deck (crew hung its hammocks on this deck) - 19 Orlop deck (storage) - 20 Hold - 21 Ballast - 22 Anchor cables - 23 24-pounder guns - 24 Long boat - 25 32-pounder carronades - 26 Galley - 27 Sail locker - 28 Sand room - 29 Rigging blocks - 30 Sick bay - 31 Forecastle - 32 Manger - 33 Crew’s head - - - [Illustration: _Constitution’s_ Sails - -Sail area, with studding sails (not shown), was more than 43,000 sq. -ft.] - - - 1 Flying jib - 2 Outer jib - 3 Inner jib - 4 Fore topmast staysail - 5 Foresail - 6 Fore topsail - 7 Fore topgallant sail - 8 Fore royal - 9 Fore skysail - 10 Mainsail - 11 Main topsail - 12 Main topgallant sail - 13 Main royal - 14 Main skysail - 15 Spanker - 16 Mizzen topsail - 17 Mizzen topgallant sail - 18 Mizzen royal - 19 Mizzen skysail - - - [Illustration: _Sinking of Union sloop_ Cumberland _by Confederate - ironclad_ Virginia (_ex-U.S.S._ Merrimack) _in 1862, by Alexander C. - Stuart_.] - - - The Coming of Iron and Steam - -_Merrimack_, _Virginia_, _Cumberland_: names that point up the ironies -of war. As the steam frigate _Merrimack_ was being launched in July 1855 -(_see pages 32-33_), the partially built ship-of-the-line _Virginia_ lay -in another part of the yard. It had been laid down and named in the -1820s, a more harmonious time. Even if the old 74 had finally come down -the ways, it is not likely that, amidst the sectional acrimony of the -1850s, it would have kept the old name—and certainly not after the -secession of the state whose namesake it was. - -A year after _Merrimack’s_ launching, the frigate was back in the yard -after going aground during its shakedown cruise (when the crew becomes -familiar with a ship and problems are ironed out). While workers -replaced damaged coppering and repaired the propeller on the big -warship, a smaller sail frigate waited its turn. - -Launched 13 years earlier, _Cumberland_ had served as flagship of the -African Squadron, whose mission was to suppress slave running. Now back -home, _Cumberland_ moved into the dry dock soon after _Merrimack_ was -towed out. It was cut down to a fast sloop-of-war with one gun deck of -28 guns and a crew of 376. - -_Cumberland’s_ worth as a leaner warship was proven in the first months -of the Civil War. Assigned to the Atlantic Blockading Squadron, the -vessel took eight Confederate prizes in three weeks. But the next year -_Cumberland_, among the last sailing ships launched by the Navy, came up -hard against the future. - -On March 8, 1862, _Cumberland_ and other vessels were on blockade duty -in Hampton Roads, Virginia, when the men on deck sighted a bizarre new -war machine steaming out of Norfolk. Approaching them was a dark, -monolithic vessel—decks awash, no masts, no sails, no sailors. C.S.S. -(Confederate States Ship) _Virginia_, the much-rumored ironclad -blockade-breaker, had finally taken the stage. - - [Illustration: _Architect’s rendering of the Charlestown machine - shop’s “Great Chimney,” 1858._] - -It was a slow, clumsy vessel, but menacing nevertheless. Using a full -mile to gather momentum, _Virginia_ steamed steadily towards the Union -vessels. It passed the frigate _Congress_ and headed straight for -_Cumberland_, its sloping iron casement shedding the Union ships’ -barrage of heavy shot and explosive shell as if they were “peas from a -pop-gun,” in the words of a _Cumberland_ sailor. But _Cumberland_, -though clearly outmatched, could not avoid engagement. It was at anchor -in a dead calm, the crew’s wash drying in the rigging. The Union sailors -could only take the punishing return fire, clear the decks for battle, -and wait for the inevitable. - -Longer than _Cumberland_ by half, with a submerged iron ram projecting -from its bow, the approaching vessel looked to the Union ship’s pilot -like a “huge, half-submerged crocodile.” _Virginia_ tore into -_Cumberland’s_ bow below the waterline (_see pages 28-29_), then backed -off, leaving its ram imbedded in a seven-foot hole. Both vessels now -loosed volleys at point-blank range; dozens of _Cumberland’s_ crew were -maimed or killed. - -As the vessel listed and began to sink, the crew abandoned ship, but 121 -men—already dead, too hurt to save themselves, or firing guns to the -end—went down with _Cumberland_. (As water flooded the gun deck, a young -gun crew officer barely saved himself by squeezing through a gun-port. -He was Lieutenant Thomas Selfridge, who in 1890 became commandant of the -Charlestown Navy Yard.) Before darkness ended the fighting, the ironclad -also riddled _Congress_, killing more than a hundred men and setting the -vessel on fire. _Congress_ burned on into the night and finally -exploded. - -The frightening weapon that had handed the U.S. Navy its worst defeat -began its career as the hull of a wooden steam vessel. A week after the -surrender of Fort Sumter, the loss of the important Gosport Navy Yard at -Norfolk to rebel troops became inevitable. Evacuating Union forces—under -cover of _Cumberland_—burned and scuttled several warships to keep them -from falling into Confederate hands. But some were salvageable, -including a large steam frigate on which everything below the waterline -was intact. Southern engineers converted the vessel into an advanced -warship, removing the masts and topping the hull with a rooflike iron -shell. The original name of the vessel they retrieved and transformed: -U.S.S. _Merrimack_. - - -_Merrimack’s_ reincarnation as _Virginia_ embodied two -technologies—steam and iron (and then steel)—that were advanced during -the Civil War and that eventually defined the modern Navy. Steam -engineering had traveled a long road of acceptance in the conservative -Navy. By 1850, the year the Charlestown Navy Yard built its first -steamer, Great Britain had built or converted from sail some 25 -propeller and paddlewheel steam warships. The U.S. Navy had launched -only seven. Steam engines were still considered novelties by many old -Navy men—at best auxiliary power, at worst dirty and undependable -nuisances that called for machine tenders rather than sailors. - -Their resistance was not entirely unjustified. There was the problem of -range: _Merrimack_, for instance, could cruise only about 17 days with -its coal bunker full. American steamers far from home had to depend on -French or British coaling stations and machine shops in places like Hong -Kong and Shanghai. Unlike self-reliant sail, steam alone could not meet -the demands of distant squadrons. And in the early days of steam, it was -no faster than sail: in fact it was often slower. More crucial, early -steam engines were inefficient and unreliable, so captains would not -trust them in combat. And coal took up valuable space needed for -supplies, crew, and ammunition. - -But the main problem was that early steamers were driven by big, -ungainly sidewheels that caused captains no end of problems (_see page -35_). They so harmed a vessel’s sailing qualities that steam was of -necessity the primary power source on sidewheelers—but the Navy wanted -to use steam only as auxiliary power. - -Another way of employing steam power for propulsion was needed. The -propeller (called a “screw”) was the answer, allowing naval steam to -come into its own. Construction of the prototype screw sloop _Princeton_ -began in 1841, before America’s first sidewheel warships even went into -service. The Navy built only eight more deepwater sidewheelers before -the famous 1854 class of six screw steamers (led by the -Charlestown-built _Merrimack_) made the cumbersome vessels a footnote in -naval history. With the advent of the propeller, enough problems were -solved that auxiliary steam power became feasible in warships. On an -1858 cruise from Honolulu to Acapulco, _Merrimack_ steamed only three -days out of 32. - -_Merrimack_, whose subsequent adventures we have already followed, was -in the tradition of large American frigates like _Constitution_. While -its engines were never very dependable, _Merrimack_ was an excellent -sailer, powerfully armed, and on its inaugural European cruise inspired -Britain to build similar vessels with better engines. - - [Illustration: Merrimack _is launched at Charlestown in 1855;_ - Cumberland _was built in the same shiphouse in 1842_.] - -The screw sloop _Hartford_, launched at Charlestown in 1858, was one of -a follow-up class of steamers. (These and other screw steamers of the -’50s were all frigates and sloops; no steam ship-of-the-line was built -at Charlestown or any other yard. As we have seen, the era of such large -wooden ships was over by the time the Navy was converting to steam.) -These were smaller vessels with a shallower draft—better suited to -coastal and river operations. As Rear Admiral David G. Farragut’s -flagship in victories at New Orleans and Mobile Bay, _Hartford_ was -perhaps the most celebrated steamer in the Union Navy. - -With propellers, even the most hidebound captains could appreciate the -better maneuverability steam gave them during combat. Gradually the -tactical roles of steam and sail were reversed, with increasingly -efficient and dependable steam engines officially becoming the primary -power source and sail the auxiliary. As a matter of economy, however, -American vessels continued to use sail whenever possible on -long-distance cruises. - -Steam technology demanded a whole new set of skills of Charlestown’s -mechanics. When the steam battery _Fulton II_ docked there in 1839, the -yard could repair only the vessel’s wooden components, having to -contract work on the engine to local companies. But by 1845 yard -personnel could fully service the screw sloop _Princeton_. While some -carpenters may have made the transition, it is more likely that most of -those working with steam machinery had a background in the field. - -As the yard adapted to the new age, it underwent a decade of -modernization and quickened production preceding the Civil War. The dry -dock was lengthened; gas lights were installed; the yard began -manufacturing wire rope in 1857. But the most important improvement was -a state-of-the-art machine shop—its 240-foot stack long a landmark at -the yard—that replaced the old smithery in 1859. It contained such -equipment as a machine that could plane a metal surface 10 feet square -and a huge lathe capable of handling iron propeller shafts 35 feet long. -The facility also helped the yard to incorporate a new technology -dramatized (though not introduced) by C.S.S. _Virginia_: ironcladding. - -Sinking of large warships had rarely occurred in naval battle. Solid -shot either bounced off thick wooden hulls or left a small, patchable -hole. So warships normally just blasted away at each other until one of -them, casualties mounting and its deck and rigging a shambles, hauled -down its colors. Yet _Virginia_ had sunk or caused to eventually sink -two of them in two hours. Its ironcladding allowed it to get close -enough to _Cumberland_ to use an ancient but still effective technique, -ramming, and close enough to _Congress_ to pound the ship at close range -with its broadside shot and big rifles. While ramming would not remain a -tactical option, ironcladding was universally adopted as every naval -power raced to design hulls that could withstand ever more powerful -explosive shells fired from rifled guns (_see pages 42-43_). - -As in every war, technology helped shape strategy in the Civil War and -strategic considerations helped determine how new technologies were -applied. The Navy’s major role in the war effort was to blockade some -3,500 miles of Southern coastline. The South’s blockade runners were -typically the most advanced examples of British shipbuilding, -steam-powered sidewheelers that were often iron- or steel-hulled. In the -first year of the war, only about one in eleven of these runners were -caught (partly because sidewheelers were still faster than screw -steamers), and the Union Navy continued to build, borrow, and buy every -vessel it could to strengthen the blockade. - - _Continues on page 36_ - - - Steam Propulsion - -When steam was introduced as an auxiliary naval power source in the -1820s, paddle-wheels were the initial method of propulsion. In the late -1830s engineers began working with propellers—“screws” in naval -terminology. Each technology had its partisans: the sidewheel provided -greater combat maneuverability, was suited to riverine warfare, and -presented no problems of leakage, as did the screw’s underwater shaft -hole. However, the exposed wheels were vulnerable during combat, ate up -deck space needed for guns, hindered sail handling, and created more -drag than a screw when the vessel was under sail. The launching of the -screw warships H.M.S. _Rattler_ in Britain and U.S.S. _Princeton_ in the -United States in 1843 signaled the coming ascendancy of screw -propulsion. In the historic 1845 tug-of-war between _Rattler_ and an -otherwise-identical sidewheeler, the greater efficiency of the screw was -publicly confirmed. - - [Illustration: SECTIONAL VIEW OF THE U.S. STEAM FRIGATE MERRIMAC. - -_1857 inboard plan of screw frigate_ Merrimack. _Screw could be hoisted -into a well to reduce drag when the vessel was under sail._] - - [Illustration: Sidewheels: good maneuverability, but vulnerable - above the water.] - - [Illustration: The screw: more efficient, and protected below the - waterline.] - -Thus when naval officers learned of the conversion of _Merrimack_ into -an armored blockade-breaker, they were understandably worried. In the -debate over the type of vessel the Navy should develop to counter the -Southern threat, John Ericsson’s proposal for a turreted, -shallow-drafted coastal ironclad won out over larger, oceangoing designs -with traditional broadsides. His ironclad, called U.S.S. _Monitor_, was -the prototype of the turreted ironclad class named after it. (While -monitors and _Virginia_-type ironclads continued to meet the needs of a -mostly coastal and riverine naval war, two broadside ironclads were -built by the Union. One of them, _New Ironsides_, was quite effective.) - -_Monitor_ fought _Virginia_ to a standoff the day after the latter sank -_Cumberland_. It was the first clash between steam-powered ironclads, -and the world took notice. Captain John Dahlgren, creator of _Monitor’s_ -two big guns, put it succinctly: “Now comes the reign of iron—and cased -sloops are to take the place of wooden ships.” - -It did not happen immediately: _Monitor_-class iron hulls were not very -seaworthy. (_Monitor_ sank in late 1862 while being towed during a storm -off Cape Hatteras.) Wooden ships under both sail and steam power -continued to fight the Civil War’s deepwater battles, but Dahlgren’s -words came true after the war. The evolving iron, and then steel, -warship incorporated elements from both ironclads: the deeper hull and -superstructure of _Virginia_ and, rather than multiple-gun broadsides, a -few large guns in revolving _Monitor_-type turrets that allowed the guns -to be trained without turning the entire vessel. - -Only four monitors were built by navy shipyards, but officers considered -them the best produced during the war. _Monadnock_, a double-turreted -monitor built at Charlestown, was generally thought the best of the lot -and the only one of this class to see action. After the war, it proved -its unusual seaworthiness by voyaging around Cape Horn to San Francisco. - -Other than _Monadnock_, ironcladding work at the Charlestown yard was -performed on vessels built elsewhere, although the workers clad with -iron the bulwarks of some of the double-ended sidewheelers built there. -These vessels, a temporary reprieve for naval sidewheel technology, were -designed for the narrow, shallow rivers of the South, allowing the -“brown-water” Navy to reverse direction without turning around. The -Charlestown yard built five double-enders—the biggest class constructed -there during the war and, with those built at other yards, the biggest -class of ships produced in the United States before World War I. - -The Charlestown yard had in 1858 initiated its first machinist -apprenticeship, acknowledging the inevitable transformation of the -yard’s work. Steam had somewhat prepared the way for the yard’s artisans -to work with iron: those already trained as boilermakers could adapt -their skills to ironcladding. But increasingly the trades related to -steam machinery and ironcladding were formalized with titles and -apprenticeships. Through the 1850s and ’60s, machinists, iron moulders, -and boilermakers accounted for an increasingly large part of the -workforce: from a total of 26 (3 percent) in 1854 to 371 (19 percent) in -1866. But even though such trades were necessary in the yard by the -mid-1860s, they were still in the minority and were paid less, -considered less exacting and more easily mastered than the old wooden -ship trades. - -Samuel Cochran, a longtime employee at Charlestown, recalled later in -life that when he arrived at the yard as a young man during the Civil -War “the majority of the men employed were ship carpenters and joiners -and most of the tools they used were cross cut saws and axes.” His own -job was to turn the grindstone on which they were sharpened. - -Cochran went on to paint a vivid picture of the yard during the war -years when some 3,000 workers held jobs there: the ordnance workers who -had the dangerous job of retrieving powder from the magazine, donning -canvas slippers to reduce the chance of sparks; the clandestine barrels -of liquor in cellars, complete with drinking straws; the yard -“politicians” who owed their jobs to patronage; sawyers in their -six-foot-deep sawpits; the sailors (“Jackies”) on the receiving ships -finding new ways to get extra grog on board. - -A minor labor grievance in 1861 illustrates how the exigencies of war -changed the working atmosphere at the yard and reduced the workers’ -leverage. As it had in 1852, the government decided that yard employees -should work sunrise to sunset from September to March, thus bringing -their hours in line with those of private yard workers. Again the -workers protested, although they continued to work, stating in their -petition that they had no desire to hinder the government’s campaign to -“crush out a foul rebellion.” This time the Navy made no concessions. -Two strikes in 1862 over the same issue were half-hearted and futile; -the longer hours remained in effect. - - -The sense of urgency and focus engendered by war and the accelerated -pace of technological change pushed the yard to extraordinary levels of -production. So it was not surprising that with the coming of peace the -activity here and at other yards fell off. But the drop was precipitous. -At war’s end, in sheer numbers and in engine technology, the U.S. fleet -compared favorably with those of the European powers. In the weeks after -Appomattox, however, the fleet shrank dramatically and continued to -decline thereafter. In the postwar economic and political climate, the -government’s priorities shifted. Massive funds were needed for -reconstruction of the southern states and for war-deferred developments -of the nation’s interior. The Navy would have to wait. - -European navies, though, were riding the new wave of technology. In the -1870s their warships began to shed their sailing rigs as steam power -became routine technology. But in America the old guard reasserted -itself in peace, and there was a reaction against steam. After 1869, all -naval vessels, steam or not, were required to have “full sail power,” -and captains were on notice that they would pay for any coal they -consumed other than for emergencies. Four-bladed propellers were -replaced with two blades to reduce drag when under sail—with a -corresponding loss of steaming efficiency. - -As the British and European navies rapidly converted to lighter and -stronger iron and then steel hulls on their largest ships, virtually all -U.S. vessels built in the 1860s and ’70s were wooden-hulled (although -some of these contained iron bracing). Even as late as 1885, the _Army -and Navy Journal_ asserted that “a staunch, fast wooden vessel is still -the best for cruising purposes.” But while wooden-hulled U.S. naval -vessels were generally acknowledged to be fine examples of their kind, -many were well past their prime: _Independence_, for example, flagship -of the first Mediterranean squadron, had been a receiving ship at Mare -Island Navy Yard in California since 1857. - -It was not only romantic tradition that kept naval shipbuilding in its -antebellum condition. Burning coal in warships cost money; the wind, if -not as dependable, was free. Sails continued to make good sense on -long-distance cruises. America still had no foreign coaling stations to -support a distant steam fleet, and isolationist sentiment hindered their -acquisition. - - [Illustration: _Marines guard the entrance to Charlestown Navy Yard - in 1874. The gate no longer exists, but the building at right, - dating to 1813, still stands._] - - [Illustration: _Workers in the gun park, 1890s, load cannon and - cannonballs onto a cart. Dry dock and carpenter shop can be seen in - the background._] - - [Illustration: _A baseball team of yard workers poses for its - picture in front of the machine shop, about 1905._] - -For the same political and strategic reasons, America’s was a cruising -navy, made up of ships not intended for naval battle but for scouting, -showing the flag, and commerce raiding. Wooden hulls sufficed for such -roles. The government and private enterprise continued to look inland, -and iron was used instead for rails and bridges to speed westward -expansion. In any case, American metallurgy lagged behind that of -Britain, while diminishing timber supplies made British designers look -to alternate hull materials—not the case in the United States. - -If the Navy in general and navy yards in particular declined in the -1870s, Charlestown’s relative position was strong. From after the war to -the early ’80s, Charlestown was the second most productive yard after -New York. A large number of vessels came to the yard for repair—mostly -wooden vessels with steam engines. To service these ships, Charlestown -in the 1870s continued to hire more machinists, engineers, boilermakers, -and patternmakers while retaining a solid contingent of wooden ship -tradesmen. - -Few new vessels were launched from any yard in this period. In the last -three decades of the century Charlestown constructed three—all in 1874. -The screw sloops _Vandalia_ and _Adams_ were launched on successive -days, the latter (constructed at the yard by a private shipbuilder) -being the last wooden warship laid down by the Navy. A few months -earlier the yard had launched its first iron-hulled vessel, the torpedo -ram _Intrepid_. But it was not part of a general transition to iron. The -Navy built only four other iron-hulled vessels, none of them major -warships. The 1874 launchings at the Charlestown yard reflected the U.S. -Navy’s lukewarm and indecisive response to changing naval technology. - -The yard by 1880 had changed little since the improvements of the ’50s. -It had greater capacity now with four shiphouses and two building ways, -but the physical plant also reflected the technological limbo into which -the Navy had settled. There was a coaling wharf to service steamers and -a new rolling mill for iron plate. But the large sail loft and wet -timber dock were still very much in use, and oxen still pulled the -timbers from dock to sawmill. - -The dry dock was occupied by _Hartford_ in 1879-80. It was receiving new -engines after long tours in the 1860s and ’70s on Far Eastern stations. -Its two-year stay in the dock—longer than normally needed for such a -job—testified to the general state of affairs. The shrinking fleet had -reduced the work load and slowed the pace at the yard. Under such -conditions it was cheaper to use a smaller crew and take longer to do -the work. - -That the Navy was willing to give this much attention to so honored a -ship as _Hartford_ is understandable. But it symbolized the fact that it -was only putting off the inevitable—modernization. By the early 1880s -the U.S. Navy floundered in the wake of Europe’s navies—the victim of -limited funds, tradition-bound officers, political neglect, and popular -indifference. There were but 48 decaying vessels in commission, most at -a Civil War or even prewar level of technology. On top of the other -problems, the corruption associated with the administration of Ulysses -S. Grant had touched the Navy—including the Charlestown yard—in the late -1870s. Here, as at other yards, politicians found jobs for men who were -then expected to vote as they were told. It is easy to see why one -historian has characterized this period as the “low water mark” of the -Navy. - -There were rumors of yard closings. Nothing happened immediately, but -less and less work came to Charlestown. Then, in 1883, the Navy -suspended all repair and construction work at the yard and reduced its -role to manufacturing. So began hard times at Charlestown Navy Yard, -during which it came perilously close to shutting down altogether. - - _Continues on page 45_ - - - The Yard’s First Dry Dock - -Before dry docks came into use in the 16th century, the only way to -service a ship’s hull was to “careen” it—heave it over on its side, -still floating (_see pages 6-7_), or laying in the mud at low tide. It -was difficult and time-consuming and put great strain on the hull. The -answer was the dry dock. The concept is simple: float the vessel into a -three-sided basin, then close the seaward end and remove all the water. -The vessel settles on a cradle, its hull accessible. To undock: reflood -the basin, open the seaward end and float the vessel out. But the -concept’s execution required a finely-engineered complex of masonry, -engines, pumps, reservoir, tunnels, culverts, valves, and gates—in -effect a huge well-coordinated machine. The Charlestown dry dock and the -one built concurrently at Norfolk, Va., were the first such naval -structures in the country. Six years under construction, the Charlestown -dock was inaugurated in 1833 with the docking of Constitution. It was -305 feet long (extended in 1856 to 370 feet and again in 1948 to 398 -feet), 60 feet wide, and 30 feet deep—the Navy’s largest dry dock until -the 1890s. It took the original eight pumps four to five hours to empty -the tremendous basin. Other operations were to some extent governed by -Boston Harbor’s 10-foot tide. After the dock was enlarged the water -level did not rise as rapidly as the tide during filling, so it took two -high tides to do the job. For emptying and filling, the caisson was -filled with water and sunk in place between grooves in the dock walls. -For docking and undocking, the caisson was emptied and floated out of -the way on the high tide (_see inset_). It took 24 men working hand -pumps for an hour and a half to expel the water from the caisson. The -original wooden caisson lasted until 1901, when the steel caisson still -in use today was completed. - - [Illustration: The Yard’s First Dry Dock] - -1. After its 1858 launching, U.S.S. _Hartford_ is docked for -installation of its steam engine. To empty the dock, workers opened the -discharge gates (A), releasing water to flow (_red arrows_) down -discharge culverts (B) (on both sides of dock) to fill the reservoir -(C). - -2. The pumphouse (D), its steam engine driving two pumps in underground -wells (E), pumped the water from the dock via the reservoir and sent it -through an underground culvert back to the harbor. - -3. To fill the dock, the discharge gates were closed and the filling -gates (F) were opened. Water flowed (_green arrows_) first to wells (G), -then into the dock through the same culverts used to empty it. - - - Steam windlass - Timber dock - Swing gates (backed up caisson) - Caisson (“floating gate”) - - - Ironclad Technology - -The clash of ships at sea embodies the ongoing technological battle -between arms and armor: between deploying ever more destructive weapons -and contriving ways to withstand them. As long as solid shot was the -only way to attack a ship’s hull, heavy timbers were usually armor -enough. Big wooden warships were rarely sunk by even the heaviest shot. -(_Constitution_ is a particularly good example.) But the rules of the -game changed with the coming of more powerful and more accurate guns, -and especially with the development of the practical explosive shell in -the 19th century. A shell could open a gaping hole in a heretofore -impervious wooden hull. By 1860 France and then Britain had begun -building ironclads. In Britain, especially, the rising cost of -diminishing timber supplies was another incentive to experiment with -iron, both as armor and for structural elements of the hull. But in the -United States, wood was still cheaper than iron. Also, though the -country had earlier experimented with ironcladding, the Navy resisted -the new technology, putting emphasis on speed rather than armor. But it -quickly made up for lost time after the beginning of the Civil War. The -Confederacy took the lead, for the same reason that the United States -had built “super-frigates” at the end of the 18th century. A country -that could afford only a small navy had to build state-of-the-art -warships. The blockade-breaker C.S.S. _Virginia_ showed the lethal -effectiveness of its ironcladding on its first outing (_see page 28_). -The next day U.S.S. _Monitor_ fought _Virginia_ to a draw in the first -battle between ironclads (_right_). The encounter spurred European -navies to accelerate their ironclad programs, but new breech-loading -rifled guns were demonstrating greater armor-piercing ability. In -response iron, and then steel, armor was made thicker and harder, -leading to still more powerful guns. The gun designers generally stayed -a step ahead, with the biggest guns able to penetrate the thickest -armor. - - [Illustration: Monitor and Virginia] - - [Illustration: Inside a Turret] - - - Pilot house (did not rotate) - Turret (23-foot diameter inside) rotated on central spindle - Ammunition gantry - Two 15-inch Dahlgren guns - Ammunition - - - [Illustration: _The monitor_ Monadnock _(all turreted ironclads were - designated monitors) was built at the Charlestown yard in 1862-63. - The only monitor built there, it was quite successful, described by - Admiral David Dixon Porter as “the best monitor afloat.”_] - - - Ventilation shaft - Auxiliary steering position - Shot locker - Ericsson engine - Stokers’ quarters - Coal bunk - Funnel (5-inch armor) - Officer’s quarters - Boilers - Crew’s quarters - Turret rotation gearing - Stores - Chain locker - - - Specifications: - Length overall: 259.5 ft. - Beam (width): 52.5 ft. - Displacement: 3295 tons - Draft: 12 ft., 8 in. - Armor: turrets, 10 in.; pilothouses, 8 in.; over wooden hull, 3-5 - in.; deck, 1.5 in. - Engines: Two Ericsson 1426 HP steam engines, 32-in. cylinders; four - boilers - Screws: Two 4-bladed screws, 10-ft. diameter - Speed: 9 knots - Crew: 167 - Armament: Four 15-in. Dahlgren smoothbore muzzle-loading guns; fired - shot or shell - - - [Illustration: Layers of Protection] - - - 1 Typical ironcladding had wooden backing up to three feet thick. - 2 A layer of India rubber or felt might be added to help absorb shock - and retard corrosion. - 3 The cladding was often made up of laminated one-inch iron plates. - 4 Tallow was sometimes applied to the outer surface on the theory that - it helped deflect shot. - - - [Illustration: _Light battleship U.S.S._ Maine _on its first cruise - in 1895_. Maine, _part of the new steel navy, blew up in Havana - Harbor in 1898 under circumstances still unclear. The resulting - Spanish-American War ended Spain’s days as a colonial power and made - a popular hero of Theodore Roosevelt, who resigned as Assistant - Secretary of the Navy to serve in Cuba._] - - - The New Navy - -On first looking into the cavernous interior of Shiphouse I, a visitor -during the winter of 1884 would have gotten the impression that -Charlestown was a busy shipyard. Workers crawled over the almost -completed ship-of-the-line _Virginia_, swinging hammers, sawing, pumping -hydraulic jacks—apparently applying the finishing touches. But behind -the house, growing piles of four-foot lengths of wood told a different -story. The workers were breaking up the old 74. _Virginia_ had occupied -the shiphouse for more than 60 years, through all but the first two of -the yard’s launchings. Back in 1824, _Virginia_ had been within two -months of making its own trip down the ways. Now its day had passed, and -its great timbers were being reduced to firewood and sold at auction. - -Outside the shiphouse, very few workers could have been found among the -silent buildings. Charlestown was a moribund yard, barely functioning -since its repair and construction duties had been suspended the year -before. Only the manufacturing divisions still showed signs of life. In -1886 the yard would be officially converted to a facility that -manufactured equipment—especially rope—for vessels built and repaired -elsewhere. - -The yard was also stripped of much of its equipment and ordered to sell -the vessels in ordinary. Repair work fell to an all-time low: between -the 1883 docking of the Charlestown-built double-ender _Talapoosa_ and -1890, the dry dock was used exactly five times to do repair work for the -U.S. Navy—once on the yard tug and four times on the floating gate for -the dry dock. - - [Illustration: _Joiner Shop foreman George W. Burroughs, about - 1901._] - -New construction was out of the question. The yard had known for years -that the vessels already in the shiphouses and on the building ways -(labeled “Rotten Row” by a local newspaper in 1882) would never be -launched. So it came as no surprise that the order closing the yard also -condemned _Virginia_, two wooden steamers, and a monitor—the latter -three laid down during the Civil War. Still, it was disheartening that -in the early 1880s a yard that had built and repaired ships was reduced -to taking them apart. - -At least the dismantling of vessels provided employment for the workers, -who at this point felt quite vulnerable. Throughout the 1880s, -“suspension” (being laid off) was always hanging over their heads. More -than 500 men were employed at the yard when work was halted in mid-1883. -There were around 300 by the end of the year and their ranks continued -to thin, averaging less than 200 until 1888—most of them ropemakers, -machinists, laborers, and watchmen. - -Until World War I, jobs connected with supply would remain more stable -than those related to construction and repair. In the late 1880s and -’90s, managers found ways to transfer men in the latter trades to other -divisions within the yard in order to keep their services on call. But -in the early ’80s the yard could find virtually no work for men skilled -in the craft of wooden shipbuilding—formerly the elite of the workforce. -After _Virginia_ and the other vessels had been turned into stacks of -wood, those who had done the work were sent home. - - -Now let us look ahead some three decades to 1917, by which time we find -a yard dramatically transformed. Eleven wharves described a great arc at -the confluence of the Charles and Mystic Rivers. The familiar old -shiphouses had been replaced by a large shipbuilding ways and steel -plate storage yards. The timber basin that had long dominated the center -of the yard was gone, replaced by a new dry dock twice as long as the -first one. The other timber basin at the east end of the yard had been -filled in and was now the site of gas and oil tanks, a locomotive shed, -and a gas plant for acetylene torches. - -It was a vital place, showing an intensity not seen since the Civil War. -In fact it was again a wartime yard: after almost three years of -neutrality the United States had entered the global conflict that was -later called World War I. Some 4,500 workers worked two ten-hour shifts -or around the clock in three eight-hour shifts, answering to a steam -whistle instead of the bell that had summoned 19th-century yard workers. -The wharves and docks were crowded with three- and four-stacker steel -ships, some carrying the towering cage masts that were a short-lived -experiment of the period. On the building ways, workers had laid the -keel of the fuel ship _Brazos_. - -Electric lights illuminated the thousands of men working on ships -through the night. Vessels under repair were alive with the flare of -welding torches and the tattoo of pneumatic rivet guns. Over them moved -the arms of great cranes, including a 150-ton floating derrick and a -colossus that traveled on tracks between dry docks. Materials and -equipment were transported by yard locomotives that had replaced the -oxen (although horses still did service). A mechanized coaling plant -near the old dry dock helped ease the dirty and arduous task of fueling -ships. But it was apparently undependable, and at times ships were -coaled the old way. - -Charlestown’s main responsibility was repairing the warships of a -greatly enlarged fleet: steel destroyers, armored cruisers and -battleships, submarines, and wooden sub chasers. The yard also outfitted -and commissioned new vessels, converted civilian vessels to wartime use, -armed merchantmen, and altered seized German passenger liners to -transport U.S. troops to France. - -More work came to the yard in 1917-18 than in any other comparable -period in its history before World War II. Some 450 vessels were -serviced during those two years. In addition Charlestown was a supply -depot and embarkation point. In all, an average of 50 ships a day -arrived at or departed from the yard during the war. - -By 1918 some 10,000 skilled workers, laborers, and clericals worked at -Charlestown. Reflecting the growth of the labor movement over the last -three decades, many of them belonged to trade unions (although they -could neither strike nor be represented by the unions in wage -negotiations). Women working at the yard were mostly naval yeomen, but a -few worked as radio and telephone operators, radio electricians, and -ropewalk machine tenders. - -Yard employees worked in 17 trade shops, the names of which -characterized the needs of modern steel shipbuilding: Shipfitters -(including riveters, drillers, welders, sheet metal workers); -Electrical; Pattern (for cast metals); Chain; Copper/Pipefitting; and -other skills employed in raising a steel ship. - -Some of the old familiar shops survived in reduced or altered roles. The -sail loft now produced mostly canvas bags, pea jackets, and hammocks. -The riggers loft had become a versatile shop responsible for an array of -shipyard tasks. They still worked aloft on stacks and steel masts; -directed dry docking and crane operations; prepared shipways for -launchings; dove beneath ships in hardhat diving suits; and continued to -do the traditional rigger’s handiwork, such as the braided rope fenders -that protected ships’ hulls and the fancy leatherwork and ropework still -common on naval vessels. The workers in the joiner shop worked on the -small wooden boats built at the yard, but spent much of their time -making shipboard furniture. The ropewalk continued to turn out the large -quantities of rope still needed on steel ships. - - [Illustration: _These young women were working as civilian clerks - for the Navy when the U.S. entered World War I. Overnight they - became Yeomen-F (female) naval personnel. (Yeomen is the naval term - for clerical workers.)_] - - [Illustration: _Joiners were skilled workers in wood and - traditionally the elite of the yard workforce. Even in the early - days of steel ships, they remained among the highest paid of the - workers. Here joiners are photographed in their shop, about 1897._] - - [Illustration: _Yard’s floating crane, shown here in 1913, could - lift 150 tons. Dry Dock 1 is visible in left background._] - -The traditional shipyard hierarchy was virtually unchanged: the crews of -mechanics, apprentices, and laborers were headed by leadingmen; several -leadingmen were supervised by quartermen; and the quartermen were under -a chief quarterman or they answered directly to the master who headed -the shop. - -Unlike the hard times of the 1880s, the employees at Charlestown had -reason to feel secure. Civil Service reforms of the ’90s had already -gone a long way toward making merit, not political advantage, the -criterion for hiring and firing. And now, in the hour of war, the Navy -wanted to keep its shipyard workers. In the months before the United -States entered the conflict, officials had worried that employees swept -up in the popular sentiment for preparedness would enlist. Secretary of -the Navy Josephus Daniels declared it the “patriotic duty” of the -workers to remain at the yard, asserting that “their services to their -country ... [are] as important as if they were actually in the field.” - -When the draft was initiated in 1917, the Navy responded by gaining -exemptions for crucial classes of yard workers such as supervisors, -draftsmen, and skilled mechanics and their helpers. The military draft -gave new meaning to the yard’s “six-muster” rule, by which any worker -missing six successive roll calls for any reason could be fired. One -week after any worker was dismissed, the yard informed his draft board. - -The demand for workers and the boosted war economy drove up wages. No -doubt prompted by this incentive and by the exemption policy, some -240,000 men applied for work at the yard in 1917-18. But while -Charlestown didn’t lack for applicants, filling the most skilled -positions was a continuing problem. To remedy this (and to help workers -gain exemptions), the yard cut a year from the term of apprenticeship -and established a trade school to train unskilled workers as mechanics. - - -While World War I sped up Charlestown’s evolution from naval backwater -to modern shipyard, other factors had set the process in motion. Time -and expected technological advances accounted for some of it. But the -transition was accelerated at the yard by a larger transformation of the -Navy, prompted by the country’s position in a changing world and -completed on the stage of the Spanish-American War. - -Historians have tagged this transformation the “New Navy.” If we simply -compare the numbers of the 1880 Navy, when its aging fleet of wooden -vessels ranked 12th in the world, to that of the 1900 Navy, when there -were in commission or on the stocks 17 steel battleships and a number of -armored cruisers, the label “new” is certainly accurate. But there was -more to this than simply building new steel ships to catch up to Europe. -The Navy’s mission underwent a strategic shift in this 20-year period. - -The early phase involved a strengthening of the Navy’s capacity to carry -out its mission. For a century its job had been to defend the shores and -to ensure that other navies allowed American merchant vessels free trade -anywhere in the world. Its tactical traditions were one-on-one -engagements and hit-and-run commerce raiding. But it was clear by the -early 1880s that the U.S. Navy was inadequate for even these limited -operations. Reformers could point to obvious deficiencies as European -navies converted to armored steel hulls in the 1870s and ’80s. The old -wooden navy had become a disgrace. - -Powerful voices were raised in the House Naval Affairs Committee, and in -1883 Congress appropriated money for the steel cruisers _Atlanta_, -_Boston_, and _Chicago_, and the dispatch vessel _Dolphin_. These -vessels could still spread a large area of sail, and by European -standards were not formidable, but the so-called “ABCD” ships were the -core of the New Navy, the first small step towards making the United -States a true sea power. - -For Charlestown, they were a mixed blessing. The New Navy’s need for -maintenance and repair bode well for the future, but the immediate -effect was devastating. For the same legislation that authorized new -ships also established a new criterion for repairing existing vessels. -Only repairs that cost less than 30% (later reduced to 20%) of the cost -of a new ship of the same size could be performed. This freed up funds -to build the new ships, but it also meant so little work for shipyards -that both repair and construction work at Charlestown and three other -yards was suspended. - -In its new role as manufacturing center, the yard kept the ropewalk, -rigging loft, and sail loft open. The forge began producing chain and -anchors for the new steel ships. But even these activities were sporadic -until later in the decade. A survey done one March day in 1884 showed -that the ropewalk was spinning rope for _Dolphin_—literally the only -thing done that day to help put warships to sea. - -During the worst years of the 1880s the ropewalk almost singlehandedly -kept the yard alive. It made itself an indispensable facility by -supplying virtually all of the Navy’s rope. Other shops followed its -lead, and by 1890 the Charlestown yard had become an important general -manufacturing center, the only naval shipyard producing rope, sail, -anchors, and chain. It was still unable to service ships, however. In -August 1890 _Chicago_ was directed to the yard for repairs, only to turn -back because the old dry dock wasn’t in good enough condition to accept -the steel cruiser. “Repairs to engine bolts” for _Boston_ typified the -kind of task the yard could perform. - -But 1890 also marked the beginning of the yard’s rebirth. Congress -appropriated $152,000 for new machine tools and modernization of -Charlestown’s crumbling facilities. It wasn’t enough to remake the yard, -but it was a start. It was also the year that Commander Alfred Thayer -Mahan, president of the Naval War College and one-time aide to the -Charlestown Navy Yard commandant, published _The Influence of Sea Power -Upon History, 1660-1783_. This important book helped to stimulate the -world-wide buildup of naval forces prior to World War I. His thesis -(greatly simplified) was as follows: A combination of geography, -population size, and “national character” makes a great seafaring -nation. Essential to the continued well-being of such a nation is a -government that actively promotes a vigorous maritime commerce. “Sea -power”—command of the sea lanes—protects this commerce. Only large -concentrated fleets of capital ships able to engage and destroy the -enemy’s navy can create and maintain sea power. - -Mahan’s influence, both as author and adviser to the Secretary of the -Navy, was pivotal. His writings strengthened the hand of imperialists -and reformers who had called for new strategic thinking. The United -States, they reasoned, was a growing industrial power with increasing -overseas interests, and some—among them Mahan disciple and future -Assistant Secretary of the Navy and President Theodore -Roosevelt—believed the nation should have a navy befitting its role, one -able to open markets, protect those economic interests, and project U.S. -power. - -In a burst of enthusiasm recalling that for the ship-of-the-line at the -end of the War of 1812, Congress in 1890 authorized the country’s first -full-sized battleships. They represented enormous commitments of -resources, time, and money. Called “coastline” battleships to placate -still powerful coast defense advocates, they were nevertheless another -step in the United States’ emergence by the turn of the century as a -world power with a widening sphere of influence. The Navy kept its faith -in battleships until their vulnerability to air power and the -superiority of aircraft carriers as attack weapons were demonstrated in -World War II. - -Although a succession of battleships, cruisers, submarines, and other -vessels were now being laid down, Charlestown didn’t immediately reap -the benefits. The majority of the warships launched between 1883 and -1905 were built by contract in private yards, and Charlestown built none -of them. For most of the 1890s, the yard continued to be primarily a -manufacturing facility. The New Navy’s hulls did account for much of the -yard’s repair work. Steel hulls didn’t rot, but they more easily fouled -with barnacles and seaweed than a coppered wooden hull and were less -resistant to corrosion than iron. Maintaining them became the -Charlestown yard’s bread and butter. - -The Spanish-American War broke this pattern, making Charlestown once -again a repair yard. Besides the new warships the United States was -trying out against the Spanish navy, there was also the “mosquito fleet” -(old monitors, converted yachts, and other small craft used for coastal -defense during the war) to be maintained and repaired. In all some 50 -vessels were serviced by 1,200-1,400 workers. - -To beef up its workforce for war, the yard began hiring more foreign -workers, especially from Scandinavian countries with shipbuilding -traditions. Charlestown thereafter maintained a workforce averaging over -2,000 during the two decades before World War I—compared to the fewer -than 400 workers there through most of the 1890s. The Spanish-American -War was pivotal, marking a permanent expansion in the size and diversity -of the Charlestown workforce. - -At war’s end the United States was recognized as a world power with -attendant responsibilities. This new status was symbolized by the -establishment of a coaling station in the recently acquired Philippines. -The capital ship building program continued apace—given renewed vigor by -President Theodore Roosevelt, staunch advocate of big ships and a strong -navy. - -The yard continued to be mainly a repair facility with a steadily -increasing workload. The new 750-foot Dry Dock 2, authorized three -months after the sinking of _Maine_, was built to receive the Navy’s -biggest ships. But soon after the massive structure’s 1905 completion, -Britain launched H.M.S. _Dreadnought_, ushering in an even larger class -of battleship the dock could not accommodate. - -In this period the yard specialized in the smaller battleships and the -newest type of warship: destroyers. These fast, versatile ships had -evolved from British “torpedo boat destroyers” built in the 1880s to -counter the new torpedo boats. The mobile torpedo, also developed in -Britain, was a self-propelled explosive device launched from a warship’s -deck, traveling underwater to open the hull of its target. - - -Developments in naval technology from the 1880s to the eve of World War -II included nothing quite so dramatic as the epochal shifts from sail to -steam and wood to iron, but the period saw advances in strategic weapons -such as submarines and aircraft carriers, and major innovations that -resulted in ships and shipbuilding essentially like what we see today. -In the period before the age of flight, sophisticated warships were -highly visible embodiments of the state of a nation’s technology, and -the rapidly expanding U.S. fleet was an unmistakable sign of its growing -industrial and technological prominence. - - [Illustration: _Charlestown’s machine shop in 1913. Overhead belts - transferred power from a central steam engine to the machines. The - potentially hazardous belts were later replaced with electric motors - on each machine._] - - [Illustration: _Lathe operator shapes steam turbine rotor for - destroyer tender Whitney in 1923._] - -The major innovations were again in hull material and propulsion. The -transition from iron to steel hulls further liberated naval engineers. -Lighter, stronger, and less brittle, steel allowed them more play in -hull size and proportions. Despite extensive use of ironclads by the -United States during the Civil War, its navy essentially skipped the -iron stage in seagoing warships, moving from _Hartford_-type wooden -steamers to the steel ABCD ships of 1883. While the Charlestown yard -launched no steel warships until the 1930s, it did construct the tug -_Pentucket_ (1903) and training bark _Cumberland_ (1904), both -steel-hulled. - -As steam engines grew more efficient in the 1880s and ’90s, sailing rigs -were made smaller and vestigial masts served mainly as radio antennae -and platforms for directing big guns. But a revolution in steam -technology sent reciprocating engines the way of masts on most large -naval vessels. Steam turbines, which were much more efficient at -sustained high speeds, were developed in the 1880s in Europe and used in -1905 on _Dreadnought_. In America they became truly practical during the -World War I period. - -Along with the introduction of turbines came an innovation in the fuel -that powered them. During the 1890s oil was introduced, used in -combination with coal. By 1910 the United States had built its first all -oil-burning warship. Besides providing greater power more quickly, oil -needed less storage space and fewer engine room hands than coal. - -These advances and refinements completed the evolution of the U.S. Navy -warship from wooden-hulled sailing vessel to powered steel ship. But -perfecting the new technology was not the only challenge associated with -the transition. The demands of modern naval design provoked growing -controversy over how work should be performed at naval shipyards and how -those yards should be organized. Charlestown Navy Yard played a central -role in the debate. - -Since 1868 the nation’s naval shipyards had each been organized into -departments corresponding to those at the Navy Department level. Each -department head, though nominally under the yard commandant, really -worked for his boss in Washington. So each department became in effect a -separate plant protecting its own interests and budget. When a yard -built relatively simple wooden-hulled ships powered by steam engines, -the tasks of the Construction and Steam Engineering departments differed -enough that there was little overlap. The old organization was not then -a problem. But as warships became complex, integrated machines the -system broke down, providing little coordination between departments and -a great deal of duplication. By 1910 it was grossly wasteful and -inefficient, a public scandal. - -At about the same time as reformers were calling for a shakeup of naval -shipyards, the phrase “scientific management” was being bandied about. -Everyone recognized that the 19th-century industrial system, while -highly successful, had to be managed differently to best incorporate -20th-century technology. The most famous of the new management systems -was that of Frederick Winslow Taylor. Taylor’s system called for the -strict application of scientific methods to industrial management and -organization in order to produce the maximum output. Specifically, -efficiency experts would study workers’ tasks and break them down into -their smallest components; perform time-and-motion studies to eliminate -wasteful motions and determine the optimum time in which a task should -be completed; and offer wage incentives and penalties for meeting or -falling short of the new standards. There would be no reason for -bargaining or for unions since non-debatable scientific principles, -rather than human foibles and emotions, would govern management -decisions. - -The workers’ response to Taylorism was speedy and unequivocal. They -fiercely resisted any system that would analyze their movements as if -they were machines to be fine-tuned (not an exaggeration of Taylor’s -stated beliefs). Such a system, they said, would demean them and their -skills—robbing them of their autonomy and individuality; eliminating -craft from the job; turning workers into mere cogs performing sped-up, -repetitious tasks “to the physical breaking point”—not to mention the -threat to collective bargaining. So visceral was their reaction to -Taylorism that any kind of management system became suspect. - -Thus when the Navy attempted in 1912 to introduce a British management -system—less doctrinaire than Taylorism, though with the same ends of -efficiency and increased production—workers at Charlestown were -immediately on their guard. The system’s reorganization of the yard’s -divisions also upset established power relationships between traditional -sea (line) officers and newer and often younger engineering (staff) -types, tilting the balance in favor of the latter. Not surprisingly, -line and staff were polarized over the merits of the new order, accusing -each other respectively of obstructing progress and overmanaging. - -In this charged atmosphere, when two overzealous junior officers -attempted to introduce minute Taylor-like task breakdowns at -Charlestown, the metal workers at the yard took action. They asked their -congressman to hand-deliver a protest to Assistant Secretary of the Navy -Franklin D. Roosevelt. While Roosevelt agreed in principle with -scientific management, he was generally sympathetic to labor and refused -to implement a system that the yard workers opposed. - - [Illustration: _Machine shop workers pose for a group picture in Dry - Dock 1, about 1905. At this time a little more than 2,000 employees - worked at the Charlestown yard._] - - [Illustration: _U.S.S._ Whitney _rises amid a forest of scaffolding. - The keel of the 484-foot destroyer tender—the largest vessel ever - built at Charlestown—was laid down in 1921. It took two and a half - years to build. After surviving the Japanese attack on Pearl - Harbor_, Whitney _served in the Pacific during World War II_.] - -Roosevelt’s visit to the yard in 1913, during which he let it be known -that certain junior officers were being reassigned, focused national -attention on the controversy and encouraged other yard workers around -the nation. A delegation representing them lobbied against Taylorism, -eventually persuading Congress to outlaw such management systems in navy -yards. Yet when it was all over, the Charlestown yard was organized -quite differently than in the 19th century, making it a more efficient -builder and repairer of modern naval vessels and helping it to perform -as it did during World War I. - -U.S.S. _Bridge_, commissioned as the first American troops were enroute -to France, exemplified the yard’s progress since the dark 1880s. -Following a long campaign by a job-desperate Boston to have the ship -built at Charlestown, _Bridge_ was laid down in 1914 and launched two -years later. It was the Navy’s first refrigerated supply ship, with a -steel hull and a boiler that could burn oil or coal. Its 423-foot length -made _Bridge_ the largest vessel yet built at Charlestown and its first -major ship since the 1870s. - -After demonstrating its competence with _Bridge_, Charlestown was -assigned _Brazos_, two other fuel ships, and a destroyer tender. The -war-spurred building program helped Charlestown stay busy when peace -came, as the last three vessels weren’t laid down until after the -armistice. In fact the number of employees actually rose, to almost -13,000 in 1919. Besides the shipbuilding, there was work converting -ships to troop transports to bring the soldiers home and stripping -military gear from ships returning to civilian service. Charlestown -repaired a large number of destroyers, subs, and battleships small -enough for Dry Dock 2. To increase its docking capacity, the yard -purchased in 1920 a new state-built dry dock in South Boston. At the -time it was the country’s largest dry dock, becoming the nucleus of the -yard’s South Boston Annex. - -Events conspired in the 1920s to dampen the yard’s postwar prosperity. -The 1922 Five-Power Treaty limited new ship construction and the overall -number of vessels, meaning less repair and outfitting work for naval -shipyards. In any case the political mood was to spend money on other -things. After the destroyer tender _Whitney_ was launched in 1923, there -was no more construction at Charlestown, other than a couple of tugs, -for the rest of the decade. And as the Japanese grew increasingly -expansionist, much of the fleet was moved to the West Coast, further -reducing work at the yard. - -Nevertheless, Charlestown kept up its steady repair work, especially on -destroyers, albeit at a more modest level and with a workforce reduced -to below 3,000 by 1922. The addition of a marine railway in 1919 allowed -the yard to more easily service smaller ships of up to 2,000 tons. - -By the end of the decade further developments seriously threatened the -Charlestown yard. The London Naval Treaty of 1930 extended the -moratorium on new capital ship construction for another six years. The -treaty further required the U.S. to scrap three battleships and 94 -destroyers—the latter a mainstay of Charlestown. The deepening -Depression also hurt the yard, as the government’s austerity program in -the early years of the crisis reduced work at naval shipyards. The -Hoover administration threatened to close most federal yards, including -Charlestown. Yet in the Depression itself we can trace the roots of the -coming boom. - - - Building a Steel Ship - -Beginning in the 1880s, steel rapidly supplanted wood as the primary -material in U.S. naval vessels. Charlestown began building large steel -vessels in 1915-20, the period depicted below. Stronger per pound than -wood or iron, steel enabled naval architects to design bigger ships that -could carry more armament. Steel was also better suited to bearing the -massive weight of steam engines and boilers. The structural members of -early steel vessels were riveted together, with limited gas welding in -use by World War I. Shipyard artisans traded auger, saw, and mallet for -pneumatic drill, gas cutting torch, and pneumatic rivet gun. Massive -steam-powered cranes replaced the old hoisting shears. Yet, while a -riveted steel ship demanded vastly more complicated plans and a higher -level of coordination between shops, it was assembled in much the same -way as a wooden vessel. From the keel rose the stem, sternpost, and -frames. Transverse beams, longitudinals, vertical stanchions, watertight -bulkheads, decking, and plating completed the hull, all held together by -rivets. Electric welding (_below_), developed in the 1930s, allowed -still lighter construction and the prefabrication of sections. -Designers, however, still called for rivets for some parts of the hull -throughout World War II. - - [Illustration: _When the Charlestown yard began constructing steel - ships in 1915, a new building ways was erected on the site of the - shiphouse in which the wooden screw frigate_ Merrimack _had been - built 60 years earlier_ (see pages 32-33). _The yard built three - 475-foot fuel ships (“oilers”) on this shipways between 1917 and - 1921, reducing the time between keel laying and launch from two - years for the first ship to less than a year for the last._] - - [Illustration: Electric welding] - - - Chain for the Navy - -Until World War I, forged iron chain was used on naval vessels, and the -forge shop at the Charlestown yard was a leader in the industry. But it -was a laborious process, and the demands of war spurred the development -of cast steel chain, which could be produced more quickly. Charlestown -was soon experimenting with detachable links to connect standard chain -lengths. This led to the development in 1926 of a new chainmaking -process, in which each link was made from half-links joined in a die -under a drop-forge hammer—“die-lock” chain. It was clearly superior: -more uniform, stronger, cheaper to make. By the early 1930s Charlestown -was producing die-lock chain in several sizes, and by 1936 die-lock had -superseded cast steel chain for all sizes. The shop made the chain used -in most U.S. naval vessels built during World War II and was the only -forge to make chain for the largest postwar aircraft carriers. - - [Illustration: Finished chain is loaded for shipping.] - - [Illustration: Decorative background] - - [Illustration: The Die-lock Chainmaking Process] - -1 Rolled nickel-steel rods (from ¾-inch to 4¾-inch in diameter) are cut -into shorter bars. - -2 The cut bars are heated in a gas furnace to 2100°F. The now-malleable -bars are bent by machine into U-shapes. - -3 The U-bars are stamped to form stems, with tapered and ridged ends, or -they have holes punched in the ends to form sockets. - -4 Stem is hooked onto last completed link and placed in die; socket is -heated, and the two are joined under a 10,000-pound hammer (_next page_ -). - -5 Largest 4½-inch chain for supercarriers could withstand up to 2.5 -million pounds. Each two-foot-long link weighed 360 pounds. Red -undercoat and grey paint helped retard rusting. - - [Illustration: 10,000-pound hammer] - - [Illustration: _At a shift change in 1943, departing workers hurry - past destroyer escorts being outfitted for war. At its peak during - the war, the Charlestown yard and its annexes employed more than - 50,000 men and women._] - - - The Yard Transformed - -It was not a dramatic launch—no gathering speed down the shipways and -plunging into Boston Harbor. Instead, the water flowing into Dry Dock 1 -rose slowly around U.S.S. _MacDonough_ until the destroyer lifted off -the keel blocks and was towed out of the dock. The 1934 “floating” was -low-keyed but significant. _MacDonough_ was the first warship built by -Charlestown since the wooden screw sloop _Vandalia_ slid down the ways -in 1874. - -The technological leap between the two vessels—partially bridged by the -steel supply and fuel ships Charlestown built in the World War I -period—was considerable. Except for its coal-fired auxiliary steam -propulsion, the 216-foot _Vandalia_ did not differ significantly from -the old _Constitution_. _MacDonough_ was a modern destroyer—the -sloop-of-war’s 20th-century counterpart—incorporating the advances of -the past 60 years. It was powered by geared turbines driven by steam -generated in oil-burning boilers, and relied on sophisticated -electrical, hydraulic, and communications systems. At 341 feet, its -steel hull took up most of Dry Dock 1. - -As soon as _MacDonough_ was moved out of the dock, the destroyer -_Monaghan_, just floated from Dry Dock 2, was moved into #1 for -completion and outfitting. Two more keels were immediately laid in #2. -It is noteworthy that neither dry dock was being used to repair ships. -In fact, the whole yard’s traditional role as repair facility had given -way in the past year to a new one as shipbuilder, a status it maintained -through World War II. Charlestown built 12 destroyers in the 1930s and -24 more by the end of the war. Of course the yard built and serviced -other types of vessels—especially destroyer escorts and LSTs (Landing -Ship Tank)—but Charlestown acquired a reputation as a “destroyer yard” -and thereafter specialized in this workhorse of the Navy. - - [Illustration: Navy Yard Complex During World War II - -_This map of Boston Harbor in 1942 shows the five units of Charlestown -Navy Yard during World War II. By war’s end the South Boston Annex was -the largest, with dry docks big enough to repair battleships and heavy -cruisers. The Chelsea and East Boston Annexes repaired small vessels, -and the Fuel Depot Annex served the great number of naval vessels -entering the harbor during the war._] - - - CHELSEA - Chelsea Naval Hospital - Chelsea Naval Annex - Fuel Depot Annex - CHARLESTOWN - Navy Yard - EAST BOSTON - East Boston Annex - Pipeline - DOWNTOWN BOSTON - _BOSTON HARBOR_ - Deep Water Pier - SOUTH BOSTON - South Boston Annex - - -Ironically, the change had been brought about by the same economic -crisis that almost put an end to the yard. After considering closing all -yards but Norfolk and Philadelphia to save money, the Hoover -administration in 1931 proposed closing only the Charlestown yard. -Reaction was swift: committees were formed in Boston; petitions -protesting the closing were signed. But it was probably the fact that -_MacDonough_ had been ordered a month earlier that tilted the scales in -the yard’s favor. The keel was not laid for two years, however, and 1932 -was the yard’s bleakest year since before the Spanish-American War, with -only 1,500 people employed. - -The Roosevelt administration’s program to stimulate the economy, provide -jobs, and pull the nation out of the Depression was the first step in -Charlestown’s transformation into a true ship construction yard. Under -FDR’s 1933 National Industrial Recovery Act, 32 new warships were -authorized, 20 of them destroyers, of which two were assigned to -Charlestown. The following year, growing worries about Japanese -aggression moved Congress to further expand the Navy. - -The yard kept a rapid pace in the 1930s, laying two keels simultaneously -in Dry Dock 2 in 1934 and again in 1935. (As the shipways was inadequate -for destroyers, all keels were laid in this dock until 1939.) After -floating, the hulls were moved into Dry Dock 1 for completion, the whole -process taking about two years. - -Repair work was much reduced in the 1930s by federal economy measures -specifying lengthened maintenance intervals. As both dry docks were in -any case usually tied up in construction work, and because most of the -ships in for repair were relatively small, many of these vessels were -floated into a large cradle and hauled from the water up the tracks of -the yard’s marine railway. Others were taken across the harbor to the -South Boston dry dock. - - -Technological change transformed many of the yard’s oldest trades by the -1930s, while the growing size and complexity of ships required more and -more workers. Such large government employers as shipyards were seen by -policy makers as places to both promote economic stability and save -money. Early in the Depression these two goals were addressed, -respectively, with lower and upper limits for each yard’s workforce—at -Charlestown, 1,500 and 1,800. The workforce stayed generally within -these limits until 1935, when it began growing, reaching some 5,000 -workers by late 1939. (During hard times the yard kept its eye on the -future, exempting apprentices from layoffs.) - -By the time war had begun in Europe in 1939, with “readiness” again -America’s watchword, the yard was operating at an even faster rate of -production than in the mid-thirties. With the shipways enlarged to -handle destroyers, six ships were in some stage of construction that -summer. In October four destroyers were floated out of Dry Dock 2 on the -same day. The yard also prepared 18 of the old World War I four-stacker -destroyers for transfer to Britain under the 1940 destroyers-for-bases -agreement. - -Then came the war. If the thirties had been a period of gearing up, -wartime pushed the yard into overdrive. It took a great war effort for -the yard to realize its true shipbuilding and manufacturing potential, -confirming a statement by Secretary of the Navy George von Meyer in -1910: “Navy yards are primarily for war and only incidentally for -peace.” One historian’s conservative estimate: under the goad of war the -yard built, repaired, overhauled, converted, or outfitted some 6,000 -vessels between 1939 and 1945. - -The raid on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 made every naval installation -fearful of enemy attacks. Charlestown installed anti-aircraft batteries -on roofs and camouflaged waterfront buildings. Some security measures -were disruptive of yard routine. Blackouts and dim-outs were in force, -especially in the early years of the war, to reduce the chances of ships -being silhouetted against lights. When the air raid whistle blew, -workers had to stop what they were doing and go to shelters. Throughout -the war, yard officials juggled the conflicting demands of security and -production. - -Other security measures had more personal consequences. Some yard -workers were banned from certain areas, and everyone was forbidden to -speak foreign languages while at work. A number of workers were -suspended in 1941 as security risks. “Remarks ... inimical to the -government” were enough to earn an employee a place on the suspension -list. - -The huge number of people working at Charlestown was another sign that -the yard had been remade by war. The U.S. Navy became the world’s -largest single employer of industrial labor during the conflict, and the -Charlestown yard held the same status in the Boston area. The yard’s -force rapidly swelled from 5,000 workers in 1939 to a high of about -50,000 at Charlestown and its annexes in mid-1943, working around the -clock in three eight-hour shifts. - -As in World War I, the yard again had to protect its essential employees -from the draft board. But voluntary enlistment proved to be the real -drain on the workforce. Although yard foremen tried to dissuade crucial -employees from going, some 13,000 workers left the yard to join the -fight. Throughout the conflict, even when more than 50,000 people worked -there, the yard was shorthanded. - - - Mainstays of the Yard: Warship Overhaul and Repair - -After the construction boom created by World War II, Charlestown resumed -its traditional role of “serving the fleet” (the yard’s motto). In the -early 1950s it was the home yard for 121 vessels, including U.S.S. -_Cassin Young_, the destroyer now on exhibit at the yard. All types of -ships, but especially destroyers, came for everything from minor repairs -to overhauls on established cycles. The latter, which often involved -some degree of modernization, could require 800 to 900 workers a day. -After the war the yard preserved decommissioned vessels of the Atlantic -Reserve Fleet berthed at the South Boston Annex. Charlestown also -prepared ships for transfer to allies, outfitted vessels built -elsewhere, and repaired equipment, especially sonar. - - [Illustration: U.S.S. Wasp plaque] - - [Illustration: _Charlestown was busy in 1960 with overhauls and - modernizations. In the foreground: aircraft carrier_ Wasp _(whose - crew presented the yard with the plaque shown above); floating dry - dock (in a yard dry dock); heavy cruiser_ Macon (_CA-132_).] - -To make up for the shortages, the yard began for the first time hiring -significant numbers of women and African Americans. Their door of -opportunity, unlocked by the needs of a war economy, was kept open by -pressure from civil rights groups on the Roosevelt administration (often -relayed by a sympathetic Eleanor Roosevelt). Women at the yard had -traditionally worked in clerical positions and as phone operators, and -this remained true at war’s outset. But more and more women found work -in the industrial shops, notably as welders and at the ropewalk (the -latter having employed them during World War I). At least in some shops, -however, there were restrictions. Gloria Brandenberg, who worked in the -Paint Shop, recalled that all painter’s helpers were female, supervised -by a woman (the “leading lady”), while all painters were male. -Brandenberg said there was no chance for advancement. - -By 1943 female blue-collar workers outnumbered women in clerical -positions. Some 7,700 women were on the rolls in late 1944—far above -their prewar level and about 19 percent of the workforce. Many worked as -welders on ships under construction, but yard officials wary of contact -between female workers and male crews barred women from all vessels in -for repair. Painter’s helper Brandenberg recalled that the women were -not allowed even to talk to sailors. - -While African Americans were not officially excluded from Charlestown’s -prewar workforce, few had been employed. When the war created -opportunities for them, some whites openly resisted their presence in -skilled positions. But this was not a universal attitude. Allan Crite, a -black illustrator in the Design Department, said he experienced no -racial problems. Inevitably, though, tensions arose in some areas. -Gloria Brandenberg recalled an evening at a social club with her -coworkers from the Paint Shop, one of whom was African American. She was -asked to leave. The group talked it over; they all left. But the records -show no major racial conflict at the yard. At war’s end more than 2,300 -African Americans were in the force of 32,000 workers. - -By late 1942, the yard had settled into a wartime routine—to the extent -that routine is possible during war. Normal peacetime constraints didn’t -apply. “During the war there wasn’t much emphasis on estimates,” -recalled plumber Lyman Carlow. “For one thing, there wasn’t time. Here’s -the job; we need the ship right away; get it done and whatever it costs -it costs ... it was just a real frantic pace ... the material just -flowed in ... plenty of people, so we could really get the work done.” - -More than the higher level of general activity and the large numbers of -workers (around 36,000 at this point), it was the volume of new -construction that characterized the wartime yard. A walk around the yard -on November 23 would have revealed ships being built in every facility -but Dry Dock 2, used only for repairs. - -Workers generally laid down and launched large vessels in pairs. But -while floating two at a time out of a dry dock was standard practice, it -was never approached casually. John Langan, a shipfitter during the war, -recalled: “It was quite a feat, two destroyers right alongside each -other, flooding the dock, and not having them crash.” - -A new shipways built in early 1941 helped quicken the pace of -production. In that year 10 destroyers were laid down, the most in any -one year. By late 1941 the yard’s workers had pushed the time for -building a destroyer down to a little over a year and would cut it to -three or four months from keel to launching by the end of the war. - - - Women in the Workforce - - “_We all felt that we were doing our job, and the harder we worked, - the faster we would get the ships out and the faster it would get - over. Deep down, everyone was very serious about it, because - ninety-nine out of a hundred people had a husband or a brother or - somebody close to them that was overseas.”_ - —_Gloria Brandenberg, WW II Charlestown yard worker_ - - [Illustration: _Welders at Charlestown during World War II._] - -As enlistments and competition from private industry depleted the pool -of male workers during World War II, the Navy looked to the large -numbers of women who wanted to do their part for the war effort. Women -had long worked at the Charlestown yard, although almost exclusively -(except during World War I) in clerical positions. But beginning in 1942 -the easing of state workweek restrictions for women hastened their -recruitment into the yard’s manufacturing and traditional shipyard -shops. The intention was to have them replace men in relatively -unskilled positions requiring little training. And in fact most women -did work as helpers in their shops, often with little chance of -advancement. But some moved into the trades as machinists, riveters, -painters, riggers, pipefitters, and especially as welders and ropewalk -workers. At the same time women still occupied more than half of the -yard’s clerical positions. Altogether, they made up about one-fifth of -the yard workforce by 1945. Those in the trades knew their jobs would -likely end when the war did, but the point had been made. In 1945, a -yard historian wrote: “Experience over the past two years has proven -that female employees are able to work efficiently on an equal basis -with men on many jobs that were formerly considered to be men’s jobs.” - - [Illustration: _Welders at Charlestown during World War II._] - - [Illustration: _The yard’s clerical workers enlisted as Yeomen-F - (female) at the outbreak of World War I. Women also worked as radio - operators and at the ropewalk._] - - [Illustration: _Many responded to posters urging women to fill an - industrial job and “free a man to fight.”_] - -The new shipways was also used to build destroyer escorts (DEs)—smaller, -slower, and less expensive versions of destroyers designed for escort -duty and antisubmarine warfare. Escorted convoys had proven to be the -only effective way to thwart U-boat “wolf packs” preying on allied -shipping. In 1942, after the Navy ordered the first of more than a -thousand DEs, Charlestown built a new dry dock in which it could turn -out four at a time. The next year 50 DEs were laid down at the yard, -half of which were destined for Britain in accordance with the -Lend-Lease Act of 1941. Charlestown got the production of DEs down to an -art: of the 62 it built, workers launched an impressive 46 in the first -eleven months of 1943. - -If 1941 was the year of the destroyer at the yard and 1943 belonged to -the DE, 1944 was the year of the LST (Landing Ship, Tank). These -seagoing assault vessels carried tanks and other vehicles during -amphibious landings. The yard laid down 30 in 1944, taking only a month -to complete one of the 328-foot vessels. - -In all, Charlestown built 174 large vessels during the war, including 12 -barracks ships and four submarines. There were also hundreds of smaller -craft, such as wooden motor launches and diver boats. The South Boston -Annex played a part in the yard’s strong wartime performance, doing much -of the repair and conversion work and fabricating hull sections that -were towed to Charlestown for incorporation into ships under -construction. - -Not all vessels were built outside: in the summer of 1942, shipfitters -fabricated in their shop 150 fifty-foot LCMs (Landing Craft, -Mechanized)—also called “tank lighters”—for the British-American -invasion of North Africa. Shipfitter John Langan remembered it as a -“crash program.... We just stopped everything else and concentrated on -them and delivered them for the invasion.” - -While this kind of rapid, assembly-line construction was Charlestown’s -specialty during the war, there were other claims on the yard’s time. By -late 1942 war’s reality was being brought home to Charlestown in the -shape of battle-scarred ships needing quick repair. When a damaged ship -arrived, it was given priority until it was ready to return to combat. - -There was another reason for the air of urgency around war repairs: ship -repair generally called for more skill than did shipbuilding. Because -workers often had to work blind on battle damage until its nature and -extent could be determined, such work called on all the workers’ -resourcefulness. John Langan remembered “everybody fighting to get them -[war-damaged vessels], because it is good work.” Langan recalled one -vessel towed into the yard: it had been “torpedoed and cut right in -halves ... and the fireroom was open to the seas ... [They had] tied her -down with big I-beams ... tied them the full length, all the way -around”—to keep the ship afloat until it reached the yard. - -Even without the shell-torn hulls and shredded superstructures, war is -hard on ships. Pushed faster, farther, and longer under less than ideal -conditions, they needed more than routine maintenance. And on top of the -already demanding schedule of ship construction, repair, and -maintenance, other tasks competed for time and resources. Yard workers -outfitted naval vessels built at other yards. They converted private -vessels and old naval ships to wartime uses. They manufactured turbines -and thousands of tons of die-lock chain (_see pages 60-61_). They -“degaussed” hulls—neutralized their magnetic fields so they would not -trip mines. Together these activities suggest the scope and grueling -pace of the yard’s war effort. - -In such an atmosphere, mishaps caused by fallible humans dealing with -complex machinery were inevitable. One particularly embarrassing, and -nearly tragic, incident was related by electrical shop foreman Mel -Hooper. His men were completing electrical work on the new submarine -_Lancefish_ (built at another yard) in 1945. “Some machinist went down,” -he recalled, “and opened up the front gate on the torpedo tube and -forgot to close it; then he went back in the ship and opened up the -inside one and then it started to flood. And they had a hell of a job -trying to close it, and they couldn’t close it, and everybody ran aboard -the dock to get the hell out of there before they got drowned. And then -the ship sank.” - -The stepped-up safety program was almost certainly an improvement on the -pre-war conditions, when, as remembered by plumber Lyman Carlow, “It -seemed to me that everyone was supposed to look after himself.” But -while the program called for more protections for workers from open -machinery, hazardous fumes, and other dangerous conditions, a survey in -1944 noted that workers were rarely disciplined for safety violations, -machines lacked guards, and most workers did not wear their hard hats, -goggles, or ear protection. “You [went] down to the tanks with the -chipping hammers and riveting guns going all around,” recalled Carlow, -“and you wouldn’t be able to hear for a couple of hours afterward. But -nobody did anything about it, or thought anything of it. You just got -deaf, and that was it.” - -A shipyard was a dangerous place to work even in peacetime; war -multiplied the hazards. Charles Snell, an apprentice rigger at the yard, -recalled 40 years later, “We had a lot of close escapes, because safety -wasn’t really stressed then as much as it is today ... we lost a lot of -riggers, strangely enough, and I can never account for this, being run -over by the cranes ... the operator of the crane, when it was traveling, -had very limited visibility close ahead. And we lost an inordinate -number of riggers because they’d stumble and the crane would run over -them.... We had quite a few falls into the dry dock, not riggers, but -all trades.” - -Snell left the yard in 1943 and served in Europe for the duration of the -war. He recalled his impressions upon returning in 1946, comparing the -yard to “a runner, which was running for an objective, and all of a -sudden, the objective wasn’t there. The need for everything had suddenly -evaporated. And it was a question of what do you finish and what don’t -you finish, and what’s important.” - -With peace came the end of Charlestown’s brief period as a major -shipbuilding center. But the war-seasoned yard did not simply revert to -what it had been before. Charlestown found a new postwar role as a place -where old vessels were remade from the inside out, transformed into -modern warships. Old did not necessarily mean long in years. In the -1950s, ships that had performed admirably in the late war were being -left behind in a world of accelerating technological change. Charlestown -extended their careers, installing state-of-the-art electronics. When -advances in missile technology opened a new era in naval weapons and -strategy, Charlestown played a leading role in the changeover. The life -of the crowded and aging yard itself was extended by such activities, -enabling Charlestown to render another three decades of service to the -country. - -In the months after war’s end, the level of activity naturally fell off, -but the yard remained busy converting transports to bring home the -troops, inactivating ships, and completing the last few LSTs, barracks -ships, and subs laid down in 1945. Charlestown also carved a niche for -itself in sonar, a technology dating to the World War I period and -considered standard equipment since the 1930s. Beginning in 1948 the -yard became a center for the repair of sonar equipment, establishing a -sonar laboratory and developing techniques adopted by other electronics -repair centers throughout the Navy. - -Radar, developed in the 1930s, had come into widespread use during the -war. The yard undertook a major conversion program in 1950 when it began -upgrading radar and sonar systems on a number of destroyers and -destroyer escorts, converting them to radar picket and antisubmarine -warfare (ASW) roles. Charlestown also planned and designed all -alterations, wherever they were performed, to cruisers, destroyers, -escort carriers, LSTs, and several auxiliary vessel types. - -While the yard accepted a variety of vessels, including aircraft -carriers, it continued its traditional specialization in destroyers and -destroyer escorts. In 1955 the yard converted the 10-year-old _Gyatt_ -into the world’s first guided missile destroyer. - -That year the yard laid down the keel of its only postwar vessel and the -last one it built: the LST _Suffolk County_, first of a larger and -faster class of LSTs. Charlestown also served as the design yard for the -other six LSTs, built in private yards. - -In the 1960s the yard stayed busy with outfittings, missile and ASW -conversions, and Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM) overhauls -that added five to seven years of service to aging warships. -Charlestown’s FRAM program specialized in World War II-era destroyers. -Ranging from brief dockings to major operations of a year or more -costing millions, these projects involved such sophisticated work as -installing or upgrading sonar (_see pages 76-77_), radar, -communications, and computer equipment; major alterations such as -replacing engines and entire superstructures; and the more prosaic tasks -the yard had been performing for over a century: cleaning and painting -hulls, renovating propellers and rudders, and rebricking or replacing -boilers. - -Nevertheless, by 1972 work was falling off at Charlestown, and signs did -not bode well for the yard’s future. For years the Navy had invested -little there for maintenance or modernization, making it harder to stay -efficient. The marine railway and ropewalk had been shut down in 1971. -Elsewhere, superfluous or inefficient military bases were being closed -to save money. (The New York Navy Yard was closed in 1966.) A massive -infusion of funds was needed to upgrade the old Charlestown yard—too -small in any case for proper expansion of its facilities. - -The Navy in general was retrenching for economic reasons. The destroyer -fleet, especially—the lifeblood of the yard in the 20th century—had -steadily dwindled since 1960. The fewer destroyers there were to -service, the harder it was to justify the Charlestown yard’s existence. -The failure of the Navy to carry through modernization plans, including -one whereby the majority of the yard’s industrial activity would be -transferred to an enhanced South Boston facility, helped to hasten the -inevitable. Many associated with the yard also suspected that -Massachusetts, as the only state going Democratic in the 1972 -presidential election, would pay a penalty for failing to back the -winner. - -On April 16, 1973, the yard commander, Captain R. L. Arthur, announced -that the Charlestown yard, along with the yard at Hunter’s Point in San -Francisco, was to close. Over the next year it ceased all fleet -servicing and manufacturing operations, and on July 1, 1974, nearly 175 -years of service to the nation ended with a formal disestablishment -ceremony. Only one naval activity remained at Charlestown: the -protection and maintenance of the old warship long associated with the -yard, U.S.S. _Constitution_. - - [Illustration: _The launching of a ship celebrates the time, energy, - and skill spent in its making. Here U.S.S._ Guest, _one of 24 - destroyers built at Charlestown during World War II, slips into - Boston Harbor in 1942. The big_ Fletcher-_class destroyer took only - five months to build_.] - - [Illustration: _A destroyer is traditionally named for a - distinguished naval figure, and if possible the closest female - relative sponsors the namesake ship. In a centuries-old ritual, - DD-461’s sponsor Eileen Fairfax Thomson breaks a bottle of champagne - against the ship’s bow in 1941, sending it down the ways with the - words, “I christen thee_ Forrest, _and may God bless all who sail in - her.” Captain French Forrest commanded the Charlestown-built_ - Cumberland _in the Mexican War. Siding with the Confederates during - the Civil War, he oversaw conversion of the burned U.S.S._ Merrimack - _into the ironclad C.S.S._ Virginia—_destroyer of_ Cumberland (see - pages 28-29).] - - - Ships for World War II - -From 1933 to the end of World War II, the Charlestown yard moved outside -its traditional role as repair yard and became a shipbuilding facility. -It began with destroyers—ships it had long specialized in -repairing—averaging two a year in the 1930s. This period of steady -production was preamble to the World War II crash building program. -Charlestown launched almost 200 vessels, including 24 destroyers, -between 1939 and 1945. In 1942 it began building destroyer -escorts—smaller, less expensive versions of destroyers designed to -counter German submarines. The final big program was the production of -LSTs (Landing Ship, Tank) for amphibious assaults in Europe and Asia. -LSDs (Landing Ship, Dock) for carrying other vessels; submarines; and -various auxiliary vessels also came down the ways during the war. These -programs spurred major changes at the yard. Greater specialization, for -instance, broke up traditional shops. The biggest change was in -construction methods, most notably prefabrication. Several bow and stern -sections, each with its own keel, were built separately—many in the -Shipfitters Shop, but also “in playgrounds and schoolyards and parts of -the yard, and all around greater Boston,” remembered Rigger Charles -Snell. These were then joined to the midship hull section rising on the -shipways. “Economy was not the name of the game,” recalled Snell. “The -name of the game was time.” - - [Illustration: _Hulls were launched from shipways or dry docks, then - moored alongside piers for completion. Here, yard workers, who - labored round the clock during the war, outfit a_ Fletcher-_class - destroyer as night falls. At top, a five-inch gun is lowered by a - mobile crane._] - - [Illustration: Destroyer (36 built) - -A fast, versatile, relatively small ship, it was equipped for -anti-submarine warfare, escort duty, scouting, antiaircraft warfare, -torpedo or gun surface engagement, and shore bombardment.] - - [Illustration: LST (Landing Ship, Tank; 44 built) - -This craft carried tanks and other vehicles for amphibious landings. The -water ballast system allowed it to vary its draft: deep for stable ocean -travel and shallow for moving in close to shore.] - - [Illustration: Destroyer Escort (62 built) - -This smaller, more quickly built version of the destroyer was designed -to protect allied shipping convoys from German U-boats, freeing -destroyers for other duties.] - - - New Careers for Old Ships - -During the long era of wooden sailing ships, when naval technology -changed only gradually over the decades, a warship’s service lasted as -long as the materials from which it was built. But as the pace of change -quickened in the mid-19th century with the advent of steam propulsion -and iron hulls, a vessel quickly grew obsolete without continual -incorporation of the latest technology. This state of affairs, which -intensified in the 20th century, provided Charlestown Navy Yard with a -new role after World War II: lengthening or transforming the careers of -old ships, otherwise destined for mothballs, through modernization and -conversion. Modernization meant updating old electrical, propulsion, or -weapons systems or performing structural surgery without altering the -vessel’s function. This ranged from installing a sonar dome on the -bottom of the hull to dismantling the entire superstructure and building -a new one. The process normally took several months. Conversion, which -could take years, involved major alteration of a vessel to prepare it -for a different tactical mission. A typical example would be the -conversion of a conventional scouting, escorting, and submarine-fighting -destroyer to a radar picket destroyer, whose role was to provide -mid-ocean radar warning. A notable postwar task undertaken by the yard -was the 1956 conversion of the destroyer _Gyatt_ into the world’s first -guided missile destroyer. Basically, the vessel’s aft five-inch guns -were replaced with a twin missile launcher. But the ship had to be -significantly altered to perform its new function. The yard designed -automated systems that first affixed a booster charge to the missile and -then moved it from the air-conditioned belowdecks magazine to the -launcher. The decks and superstructure had to be reinforced to withstand -the tremendous pressure and temperature of a launch. A system of ducts -and blowout plates was installed to minimize damage and injury in the -event of a premature explosion. Innovative retractable fins at midships -helped stabilize the vessel for firing. With these and other changes, -the yard remade _Gyatt_ into a sophisticated missile-firing machine. - - [Illustration: _In the late 1950s the Navy began installing sonar - equipment in bow domes. Bow domes reduced hull resistance and were - less susceptible to bubble noise. The Charlestown yard, already a - leader in sonar technology, performed a prototype dome installation - in 1958. To install a dome, workers first cut away part of the old - bow, then fitted the prefabricated dome_ (next page, on U.S.S. - _Willis A. Lee_ in 1961).] - - [Illustration: _Sonar works actively and passively. In active sonar, - the transducer in the dome transmits sound pulses through the water. - When the pulses reach an object (or the bottom), they are reflected - and received by the transducer as echoes. Distance is determined by - time elapsed between transmission and echo. In passive sonar, - hydrophones pick up noises generated by underwater sources._] - - [Illustration: Installing a sonar dome] - - - - - Part 2 Visiting Charlestown Navy Yard - - - [Illustration: _U.S.S._ Cassin Young _at Pier 1_.] - - - The Yard Today - -The yard offers the visitor a captivating glimpse into the activities -that for nearly two centuries supported the United States Navy. Here on -the home front, thousands of civilian workers and navy personnel built, -repaired, and supplied warships from the majestic sailing vessels of the -early 19th century to the powerful steel navy of the 20th century. In -1974, the year of its closing, 30 acres of the historic yard were set -aside for the National Park Service as a living museum of the Navy’s -activities here. The remaining 100 acres continue to be developed as -part of the revitalization of Boston’s waterfront. - -Nineteenth-century buildings, docks, and piers reflect the yard’s -174-year history. The commandant’s 1805 hilltop mansion overlooked the -activities below. Within view are Dry Dock 1, used by U.S.S. -_Constitution_ as early as 1833 and as late as 1995, the 1842 Carpenter -Shop, the 1852 Pitch House (Building 10) for caulking wooden vessels, -the 1833 Officers’ Quarters, the 1813 Navy Stores (Building 5), and the -1811 Marine Barracks. - -Two venerable warships, the 1797 frigate U.S.S. _Constitution_ and the -powerful 1943 destroyer, U.S.S. _Cassin Young_, float alongside the -working piers, illustrating the changing United States Navy. Both the -_Constitution_, an active duty Navy warship, and _Cassin Young_, -maintained by National Park Service rangers and volunteers, offer free -tours daily. - - [Illustration: Tours of the yard] - -A National Park Service exhibit, “Serving the Fleet,” and tours of the -yard (_above_) provide visitors with opportunities to explore the -history of the site. The USS Constitution Museum offers a rich -collection of artifacts, paintings, and models relating to the history -of “Old Ironsides.” The museum, located inside the Dry Dock 1 Pumphouse, -is open daily to visitors. - - [Illustration: Key to map] - - - Historic structure - Historic building name - Historic building letter or number - Non-historic structure - Freedom Trail (route subject to change) - National Park Service boundary - Public open space - Parking - - - [Illustration: CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD] - -Charlestown Navy Yard’s buildings reflect the range of architectural -styles employed over its long history. These structures served a variety -of functions within the working yard, which was home to naval officers -and their families as well as an industrial work place. - -Beginning in 1853, the civilian shipyard workers living in surrounding -communities, primarily Charlestown, assembled each morning to the -ringing of the bell atop the octagonal Muster House. For most of the -19th century, the workers mustered there three times daily, in the -morning at sunrise, at lunch, and once more in the evening before -retiring to their homes at sunset. - - [Illustration: Muster House] - -Directing the activities was the shipyard commandant, who lived with his -family and personal staff in the impressive mansion constructed in 1805. -Built on the yard’s high ground, the Commandant’s House provided a -bird’s-eye view of the construction and repair activities going on -below. - - [Illustration: Commandant’s House] - -Today the house is open to the public for special tours, and numerous -activities, such as historical military encampments, take place on the -expansive lawn through the summer months. - - [Illustration: Historical military encampments] - - [Illustration: The Chain Forge houses the massive hammers once used - to forge die-lock chain, a unique process developed here in 1926.] - - [Illustration: The country’s only remaining full-length ropewalk was - for more than 130 years the sole facility in the Navy manufacturing - rope for U.S. warships. Both buildings (not open to the public) - await restoration and preservation work as part of the National Park - Service’s ongoing efforts to preserve the significant industrial - heritage of the Charlestown Navy Yard.] - - - The Ships at Charlestown - -The Navy’s oldest commissioned warship, United States Ship -_Constitution_ and the Charlestown Navy Yard share a long history. -Constructed in Boston between 1794 and 1797, “Old Ironsides” was -repaired and supplied here many times during its active career. U.S.S. -_Constitution_ was permanently berthed in Charlestown in 1897 and has -since been open to the public for tours. Like all wooden vessels, -_Constitution_ needs constant attention. In the 1920s, a major overhaul -was capped with a nationwide tour. Between 1992 and 1995, _Constitution_ -underwent the most significant restoration to date in the yard’s Dry -Dock 1. Newly discovered drawings and descriptions were used to help -skilled naval shipwrights restore the vessel to its original appearance. - - [Illustration: _Constitution_ settles on dry dock blocks in - preparation for its 1990s restoration.] - - [Illustration: A view off the bow of the venerable warship.] - - [Illustration: Caulkers use traditional caulking hammers to seal the - gun decks.] - -The World War II destroyer U.S.S. _Cassin Young_ (DD-793) reflects a -very different kind of sea power than does _Constitution_. Yet both -warships, constructed 150 years apart, served much the same purpose. -Like frigates, destroyers (known as the workhorses of the modern navy) -are smaller and less powerful than the heaviest warships, but they are -fast and remarkably versatile. Boasting five 5-inch guns and made of -steel, _Cassin Young_ was built on the West Coast in 1943 and took part -in major Pacific engagements, including the Saipan landing and the -Battle of Leyte Gulf, where its crew rescued over 100 sailors from the -attack on U.S.S. _Princeton_. - - [Illustration: Free tours let visitors see where the “tin can - sailors” lived during their long months at sea.] - - [Illustration: Aboard _Cassin Young_, “Rosie the Riveter” programs - introduce visitors to the work and lives of the women who wielded - rivet guns and welding rods during World War II.] - - [Illustration: _Cassin Young’s_ bow offers views of the historic - yard and harbor.] - - - The Exhibits - -Today, exhibits and educational activities help bring alive the navy -yard and Boston’s maritime history. At the USS Constitution Museum, -located in the historic Dry Dock 1 Pumphouse and adjacent buildings, -hands-on activities help visitors to appreciate the skills of a -19th-century seaman and get a sense of his life aboard a sailing -warship. Load and fire a replica cannon, try out a sailor’s sleeping -quarters, take a turn at the great wheel of a square-rigger, or command -U.S.S. _Constitution_ in battle on a computer screen. - -The museum houses the frigate’s logs, weapons, documents, charts, -journals, decorative arts, and other items illustrating the epic role of -“Old Ironsides” in U.S. history. Skilled craftsmen demonstrate ship -model building, while films and special programs provide greater insight -into the ship’s story. A museum store offers other items relating to -_Constitution’s_ history and to the nation’s maritime heritage. - - [Illustration: USS Constitution Museum] - - [Illustration: USS Constitution Museum] - - [Illustration: A permanent exhibit, “Serving the Fleet,” which - focuses on the history of the navy yard, is open to the public on a - seasonal basis in the navy yard’s Paint Shop (Building 125).] - - - Index - - - _Numbers in italics refer to photographs, illustrations, or maps._ - - - A - “ABCD ships” 50, 54 - Aircraft carrier 51, 60, _66_, 72 - - - B - Bainbridge, William 11, _12_, 13, 15, 17 - Barbary States 9, 14, 15-16 - Battleship 11, 47, 49, 51, 57 - Brig-of-war _14_ - British Navy 11, 13, 15, 16 - Burroughs, George W. _46_ - - - C - Chain 50, _60-61_, 70, _83_ - Charlestown Navy Yard: annexes 64; - and Boston Harbor _4-5_, 13, 15, 16, _64_; - and NPS _78-79_, 80-86; - Civil War _28-29_, 29-31, 34, 36-37; - founding 16; - improvements 17, 34, 46-47; - map _64_, _81_; - mission 16, 45, 47, 50, 63; - post-Civil War 37, 39; - post-WW I 57; - post-WW II 71-72, _76-77_; - Spanish-American War 46, 49, 51; - South Boston Annex 57, 65, 70; - view _back cover_; - War of 1812 11-15, 16; - WW I 46-49, 57; - WW II 62, 63-71, 73, _74-75_ - Coaling plant 47 - C.S.S. (Confederate States Ship): _Virginia_ _28_, 29-31, 34, 36, - _43_, 73 - Conversion, ship 72, _76-77_ - Cruiser 47, 50, 51, _66_ - - - D - Dahlgren, John 36 - Daniels, Josephus 49 - Decatur, Stephen 15 - Destroyer escort 70, 72, 75 - Destroyer 47, 51, 57, 63, 65, 67, 72, _73_, _74-75_ - Dry dock: #1 4, 17, _23_, 34, 39, _40-41_, 45, 50, _56_, 63, 64; - #2 47, 51, 57, 63, 64, 65, 67 - - - E - Ericsson, John 36 - - - F - Farragut, David G. 34 - Five-Power Treaty 57 - FRAM (Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization) 72 - Frigate _14_, 16, 17, _26-27_. See also U.S.S. ship names - Fuel 31, 37, 47, 51, 54, 57, 64 - - - H - Hartt, Edmund 13 - Hartt, Edward 13 - H.M.S. (His Majesty’s Ship): _Dreadnought_ 51, 54; - _Java_ 11 - Hull, Isaac 15, 18 - Hull: iron 37, 39; - steel 37, 49-54, _58-59_; - wooden _24-25_, 34, 37, 39, 49 - - - I - Ironclad _28-29_, 30-31, 34, 36, _42-43_ - - - L - Launching 13, 15, 18, _32-33_, 63, 67, _73_ - LCM (Landing Craft Mechanized) 70 - LST (Landing Ship Tank) 64, 70, 71, 72, _75_; - _Suffolk County_ 72 - - - M - Machinery 34, _52-53_, _54_ - Machine shop _30_, 34, _52-53_ - Mahan, Alfred Thayer 50 - Manufacturing 39, 45, 50, 51, _60-61_ - Marine railway 57, 64-65, 72 - Monitor 36, _42-43_, 46 - “Mosquito fleet” 51 - - - O - “ordinary [in ...]” 2, _4_, 17-18 - - - P - Propeller 31, 34, _35_, _37_ - - - R - Radar 72, 77 - Railway, yard 47 - Receiving ship 2, _4_, 14, 37 - Repair, ship 16, _23_, 39, 50, 51, 57, 63, _66_, 70 - Roosevelt, Franklin D. 55, 57, 64, 67 - Roosevelt, Theodore 46, 50 - Ropewalk 17, _20-21_, 45, 49, 50, 67, 69, 72, _83_ - - - S - Sail power 17, 18, _19_, _26-27_, 31, 34, 37, 50, 54 - Shipbuilding _24-25_, 36, 54, _58-59_, 63 - Shipbuilding ways _24-25_, 39, 46, _56_, 57, _58-59_, 64, 67 - Shiphouse 13, 18, _32-33_, 39, 45, 46, _back cover_ - Ship-of-the-line 11, _14_, 16-17, 18, 34. See also U.S.S. ship - names - Shipyards, naval _8-9_ - Sidewheeler 17, 31, 34, _35_ - Sloop-of-war _14_, 16, _23_, _28_, 29, 34. See also U.S.S. ship - names - Sonar 71-72, _76-77_ - Steam propulsion 17, 31, 34, _35_, 37 - Stoddert, Benjamin 16 - Submarine 47, 51, 70, 71, 74 - - - T - Tar house 17, 20 - Taylor, Frederick W. 55 - Taylorism 55, 57 - Technology, naval 31, 34, 37, 51, 54, 63, 72, _76-77_ - Torpedo 51 - Trade shops 17, _30_, 34, 47, 49, 50 - - - U - U.S. Marines 13, _38_ - U.S. Navy 15-16, 18, 22, 31, 34, 36, 37, 39, 55; - policy 16, 37, 49-50, 65, 72 - U.S.S. (United States Ship): _Adams_ 39; - _Atlanta_ 50; - _Boston_ 50; - _Brazos_ 47, 57; - _Bridge_ 57; - _Cassin Young_ 66, _85_; - _Chesapeake_ 12, 13; - _Chicago_ 50; - _Congress_ 30-31, 34; - _Constellation_ 16; - _Constitution_ _6-7_, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, _26-27_, 72, - _84_; - _Cumberland_ 16, 18, _28_, 29-31, 34, 73; - _Dolphin_ 50; - _Forrest_ _73_; - _Fulton II_ 17; - _Guest_ _73_; - _Gyatt_ 72, 77; - _Hartford_ 31, 34, 39; - _Independence_ _10_, 12, 13, _14_, 15, 17, 18, 37; - _Intrepid_ 39; - _MacDonough_ 63, 64; - _Macon_ _66_; - _Maine_ _44_, 46; - _Merrimack_ 29-31, _32-33_, _35_, 59, 73 (See also C.S.S. - _Virginia_); - _Monadnock_ 36, _42-43_; - _Monaghan_ 63; - _Monitor_ 36, 42, _43_; - _New Hampshire_ 18; - _New Ironsides_ 36; - _Pentucket_ 54; - _Princeton_ 31, 34, 35; - _Talapoosa_ 45; - _United States_ 16; - _Vandalia_ 39, 63; - _Vermont_ 17, 18; - _Virginia_ 17, 18, 45, 46; - _Wasp_ _66_; - _Whitney_ _54_, _56_, 57 - - - V - Von Meyer, George 65 - - - W - Workforce: African Americans 67; - management 55, 57; - size 18, 25, 46, 51, 57, 64, 65, 67; - skills 18, 34, 36, 39, 47, 58; - women 47, _48_, 67, _68-69_; - work conditions 18, 22, 37, 65, 67, 71; - workers _19-21_, _23_, _38_, _46_, _48_, _52-53_, _54_, _56_, - _60-61_, _62-63_, _77_ - - - - - National Park Service - - -The National Park Service is indebted to all those persons who made the -production of this book possible. The text greatly benefited from -suggestions by naval architect and historian John G. Arrison and -historian Frederick R. Black. The primary source for the yard history -was the National Park Service report, _The Charlestown Navy Yard -1800-1973_ (_1800-1842_ by Edwin C. Bearss; _1842-1890_ by Edwin C. -Bearss and Frederick R. Black; _1890-1973_ by Frederick R. Black). Other -important sources were Kenneth J. Hagan’s _This People’s Navy: The -Making of American Sea Power_, 1991; Howard I. Chapelle’s _The History -of the American Sailing Navy_, 1949; and Donald L. Canney’s _The Old -Steam Navy_, 1990. The handbook was produced by the staff of the -Division of Publications, National Park Service: Susan Barkus, designer; -William Gordon, editor; Nancy Morbeck Haack, cartographer, assisted by -the staff of Boston National Historical Park. - - - _All photos not credited are from the files of Boston National - Historical Park._ - Mary Altier 84 (bottom left) - John Batchelor 24-25, 26-27, 40-41, 42-43, 58-59, 60, 74-75 - _Battles and Leaders of the Civil War_ 43 (top) - Boston Athenaeum 4-5, 30, 32-33 - The Bostonian Society/Old State House 10-11, 46 - George Eastman House 23 - Louis Glanzman 19 - Greg Harlin 21 (right) - James Higgins 66 (top), 78-79, 82-83, 84 (bottom right), 85, 86 (top, - bottom) - _The Kedge-Anchor_, by William N. Brady 14 (bottom) - Mariner’s Museum back cover - James McFalls cover, 2-3 - National Archives 14 (top; painting by Rear Admiral J.W. Schmidt), 35 - (top), 69 (bottom) - Jack Pare 84 (top) - The Paul Revere Life Insurance Co. 6-7 (painting by A. Lassell Ripley) - Robert Tope 8-9 - U.S. Marine Corps Museum 28-29 - U.S. Naval Academy 44-45 (painting by Frank Christian Muller) - USS Constitution Museum 86 (center; photo by Jerry Margolycz) - - - - - U.S. Department of the Interior - - -As the nation’s principal conservation agency, the department of the -Interior has responsibility for most of our nationally-owned public -lands and natural resources. This includes fostering the wisest use of -our land and water resources, protecting our fish and wildlife, -preserving the environmental and cultural values of our national parks -and historical places, and providing for the enjoyment of life through -outdoor recreation. The Department assesses our energy and mineral -resources to ensure that their development is in the best interest of -all our people. The Department also has a major responsibility for -American Indian reservation communities and for people who live in -island territories under U.S. administration. - -National Park Handbooks are published to promote understanding and -enjoyment of more than 360 National Park System sites representing our -natural and cultural heritage. The handbooks are sold at parks and can -be purchased by mail from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. -Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. - - - _Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data_ - Charlestown Navy Yard: Boston National Historical Park, Massachusetts. - p. cm.—(Official National Park handbook; 152) - Includes index. - Supt. of Docs. no.: I29.9/5:152 - ISBN 0-912627-60-3 - 1. Boston Naval Shipyard (Boston, Mass.)—History. - 2. Charlestown Navy Yard (Mass.)—History. I. United States. National - Park Service. Division of Publications. II. Series: Handbook - (United States. National Park Service. Division of - Publications); 152. - VA70.B68C48 1995 - 359.7’09744’61—dc20 95-12868 CIP - - - [Illustration: _1840 view of Charlestown Navy Yard by George Curtis - depicts the shiphouses that covered four of the yard’s shipbuilding - ways during the 19th century._] - -_For 174 years, the U.S. Naval Shipyard at Boston, now called -Charlestown Navy Yard, played a significant role in the creation and -growth of the U.S. Navy. By the time it closed in 1974, it had built -more than 200 warships and repaired thousands. Historic black and white -photographs, color photos and illustrations, and detailed diagrams tell -the story of evolving technology and naval policy and how they affected -the fortunes of the yard and its workers._ - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes - - -—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook - is public-domain in the country of publication. - -—Relocated all image captions to be immediately under the corresponding - images, removing redundant references like ”preceding page”. - -—Silently corrected a few palpable typos. - -—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by - _underscores_. - - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Charlestown Navy Yard, by National Park Service - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHARLESTOWN NAVY YARD *** - -***** This file should be named 55010-0.txt or 55010-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/5/5/0/1/55010/ - -Produced by Stephen Hutcheson, MFR and the Online -Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United -States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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