1.
Mare Island Naval Shipyard
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The Mare Island Naval Shipyard was the first United States Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. It is located 25 miles northeast of San Francisco in Vallejo, the Napa River goes through the Mare Island Strait and separates the peninsula shipyard from the main portion of the city of Vallejo. MINSY made a name for itself as the premier US West Coast submarine port as well as serving as the force in San Francisco Bay Area shipbuilding efforts during World War II. The base closed in 1996 and has gone through several redevelopment phases and it was registered as a California Historical Landmark in 1960, and parts of it were declared a National Historic Landmark District in 1975. They managed to survey the Mare Island Strait before steaming to Hawaii to obtain crewmen from Hawaiian monarch King Kamehameha III. They returned to San Francisco in the spring of 1850 with the survey of northern California beginning on April 4,1850. On August 1,1850, while still in Oregon, McArthur purchased a 1⁄16 interest in Mare Island for $468.50 then returned to San Francisco later that month to prepare charts, on January 15,1852, Secretary of the Navy Will A. Graham ordered a Naval Commission to select a site for a yard on the Pacific Coast. Commodore D. Sloat along with Commodore C, sanger were appointed to the commission. On July 13,1852, Sloat recommended the island across the Napa River from the settlement of Vallejo, the Navy purchased the original 956 acres of MINSY on January 4,1853. MINSY served as a major Pacific Ocean repair station during the late 19th century, handling American as well as Japanese, in 1861, the longest lived of the clipper ships, Syren, was brought to Mare Island Navy Yard for $15,000 of repairs. Syren had struck Mile Rock two times while trying to out of the Golden Gate. Marines first arrived for duty in 1862 under the command of Maj. Addison Garland, Mare Island Naval Shipyard also took a commanding role in civil defense and emergency response on the West Coast, dispatching warships to the Pacific Northwest to subdue Native American violence. MINSY sent ships such as Wyoming south to Central America and the Panama Canal to protect US political and commercial interests, some of the support, logistics and munition requirements for the Spanish–American War were filled by Mare Island. MINSY sent men, materiel and ships to San Francisco in response to the following the 1906 earthquake. Arctic rescue missions were mounted as necessary, ordnance manufacturing and storage were two further key missions at MINSY for nearly all of its active service, including ordnance used prior to the American Civil War. In 1911, the Marine Corps established two West Coast recruit training depots first at Mare Island, the second at Puget Sound, Mare Island eventually became the West Coasts only recruit training facility when the Puget Sound operation consolidated to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1912. Instructors trained recruits there until August 10,1923, when they relocated to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego, in March 1917 MINSY was the site of a major explosion of barges loaded with munitions
2.
Norfolk Naval Shipyard
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The Norfolk Naval Shipyard, often called the Norfolk Navy Yard and abbreviated as NNSY, is a U. S. Navy facility in Portsmouth, Virginia, for building, remodeling, and repairing the Navys ships. It is the oldest and largest industrial facility that belongs to the U. S. Navy as well as the most multifaceted, located on the Elizabeth River, the yard is just a short distance upriver from its mouth at Hampton Roads. It was established as Gosport Shipyard in 1767, destroyed during the American Revolutionary War, it was rebuilt and became home to the first operational drydock in the United States in the 1820s. Changing hands during the American Civil War, it served the Confederate States Navy until it was destroyed in 1862. The shipyard was again rebuilt, and has continued operation through the present day, the Gosport Shipyard was founded on November 1,1767 by Andrew Sprowle on the western shore of the Elizabeth River in Norfolk County in the Virginia Colony. This shipyard became a naval and merchant facility for the British Crown. In 1775, at the beginning of the American Revolution, Sprowle stayed loyal to the Crown and fled Virginia, in 1779, while the newly formed Commonwealth of Virginia was operating the shipyard, it was burned by British troops. In 1794, United States Congress passed An Act to Provide a Naval Armament, in 1799 the keel of USS Chesapeake, one of the first six frigates authorized by Congress, was laid, making her the first ship built in Gosport for the U. S. Navy. The federal government purchased the shipyard from Virginia in 1801 for $12,000 and this tract of land measured 16 acres and now makes up the northeastern corner of the current shipyard. In 1827, construction began on the first of what would be the first two dry docks in the United States. The first one was completed three weeks ahead of projects in both Boston, Massachusetts and South America, making it the first functional dry dock in the Americas. Dry Dock One, as it is referred to today, is operational and is listed as historical landmark in Portsmouth. Officers Quarters A, B, and C were built about 1837, additional land on the eastern side of the Elizabeth River was purchased in 1845. Enslaved Labor, slave labor was utilized in the Norfolk Navy Yard from its foundation until the Civil War. Some idea of the scale can be found in this exert from a letter of Commodore Lewis Warrington dated 12 October 1831 to the Navy Board of Commissioners. Warringtons letter to the BNC, was in response to various worker petitions. usgwarchives. net/va/portsmouth/shipyard/nnysharp. html#enslaved> In 1861, fearing that the Confederacy would take control of the facility, the shipyard commander Charles Stewart McCauley ordered the burning of the shipyard. The Confederate forces did in fact take over the shipyard, the capture of the shipyard allowed a tremendous amount of war material to fall into Confederate hands. 1,195 heavy guns were taken for the defense of the Confederacy, and employed in areas from Hampton Roads all the way to Fort Donelson Tennessee, Port Hudson
3.
Bath Iron Works
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Bath Iron Works is a major American shipyard located on the Kennebec River in Bath, Maine. Since its founding in 1884, BIW has built private, commercial and military vessels, the shipyard has built and sometimes designed battleships, frigates, cruisers and destroyers, including the Arleigh Burke class, which are currently among the worlds most advanced surface warships. Since 1995, Bath Iron Works has been a subsidiary of General Dynamics, during World War II, ships built at BIW were considered by sailors and Navy officials to be of superior toughness, giving rise to the phrase Bath-built is best-built. Bath Iron Works was incorporated in 1884 by General Thomas W. Hyde, after the war, Hyde bought a local shop that helped make windlasses and other iron hardware for the wooden ships built in Baths many shipyards. He expanded the business by improving its practices, entering new markets, by 1882, Hyde Windlass was eyeing the new and growing business of iron shipbuilding, two years later, it incorporated as Bath Iron Works. On February 28,1890, BIW won its first contract for complete vessels, the Machias, one of these 190-foot gunboats, was the first ship launched by the company. In 1892, the yard won its first commercial contract for a steel vessel, in the 1890s, the company built several yachts for wealthy sailors. In 1899, General Hyde, suffering from the Brights Disease that would kill him later that year, resigned from management of the shipyard, leaving his sons Edward and that year the shipyard began construction of the Georgia, the only battleship to be built in Bath. The ship dominated the yard for five years until its launching in 1904, the yard faced numerous challenges because of the weight of armor and weapons. In sea trials, the Georgia averaged 19.26 knots for four hours, making her the fastest ship in her class, the company continued to rely on Navy contracts, which provided 86% of the value of new contracts between 1905 and 1917. The yard also produced fishing trawlers, freighters, and yachts throughout the first half of the century, at peak production during World War II, the shipyard launched a destroyer every 17 days. Bath Iron Works ranked 50th among United States corporations in the value of World War II military production contracts, in 1981, Falcon Transport ordered two tankers, the last commercial vessels built by BIW. In 1988, the USS Samuel B, Roberts, commissioned two years earlier at Bath, survived a mine explosion that tore a hole in its engine room and flooded two compartments. Over the next two years, BIW repaired the Roberts in unique fashion, the guided missile frigate was towed to the companys dry dock in Portland, Maine, and put up on blocks, where its damaged engine room was cut out of the ship. Meanwhile, workers in Bath built a 315-ton replacement, when it was ready, the module was floated south to Portland, placed on the dry dock, slid into place under the Roberts, jacked up, and welded into place. In 2001, BIW wrapped up an effort to build an enormous concrete platform. Instead of being built on a way so that they could slide into the Kennebec at launch. This greatly reduced the work involved in building and launching the ships, the 750-foot,28, 000-ton dry dock was built by Chinas Jiangdu Yuchai Shipbuilding Company for $27 million
4.
Royal Navy
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The Royal Navy is the United Kingdoms naval warfare force. Although warships were used by the English kings from the medieval period. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century, from the middle decades of the 17th century and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century it was the worlds most powerful navy until surpassed by the United States Navy during the Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing the British Empire as the world power during the 19th. Due to this historical prominence, it is common, even among non-Britons, following World War I, the Royal Navy was significantly reduced in size, although at the onset of the Second World War it was still the worlds largest. By the end of the war, however, the United States Navy had emerged as the worlds largest, during the Cold War, the Royal Navy transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the GIUK gap. The Royal Navy is part of Her Majestys Naval Service, which includes the Royal Marines. The professional head of the Naval Service is the First Sea Lord, the Defence Council delegates management of the Naval Service to the Admiralty Board, chaired by the Secretary of State for Defence. The strength of the fleet of the Kingdom of England was an important element in the power in the 10th century. English naval power declined as a result of the Norman conquest. Medieval fleets, in England as elsewhere, were almost entirely composed of merchant ships enlisted into service in time of war. Englands naval organisation was haphazard and the mobilisation of fleets when war broke out was slow, early in the war French plans for an invasion of England failed when Edward III of England destroyed the French fleet in the Battle of Sluys in 1340. Major fighting was confined to French soil and Englands naval capabilities sufficed to transport armies and supplies safely to their continental destinations. Such raids halted finally only with the occupation of northern France by Henry V. Henry VII deserves a large share of credit in the establishment of a standing navy and he embarked on a program of building ships larger than heretofore. He also invested in dockyards, and commissioned the oldest surviving dry dock in 1495 at Portsmouth, a standing Navy Royal, with its own secretariat, dockyards and a permanent core of purpose-built warships, emerged during the reign of Henry VIII. Under Elizabeth I England became involved in a war with Spain, the new regimes introduction of Navigation Acts, providing that all merchant shipping to and from England or her colonies should be carried out by English ships, led to war with the Dutch Republic. In the early stages of this First Anglo-Dutch War, the superiority of the large, heavily armed English ships was offset by superior Dutch tactical organisation and the fighting was inconclusive
5.
Destroyer
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Before World War II, destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for unattended ocean operations, typically a number of destroyers and a single destroyer tender operated together. After the war, the advent of the missile allowed destroyers to take on the surface combatant roles previously filled by battleships. This resulted in larger and more powerful guided missile destroyers more capable of independent operation, the emergence and development of the destroyer was related to the invention of the self-propelled torpedo in the 1860s. A navy now had the potential to destroy an enemy battle fleet using steam launches to launch torpedoes. Fast boats armed with torpedoes were built and called torpedo boats, the first seagoing vessel designed to fire the self-propelled Whitehead torpedo was the 33-ton HMS Lightning in 1876. She was armed with two drop collars to launch these weapons, these were replaced in 1879 by a torpedo tube in the bow. By the 1880s, the type had evolved into small ships of 50–100 tons, in response to this new threat, more heavily gunned picket boats called catchers were built which were used to escort the battle fleet at sea. The anti-torpedo boat origin of this type of ship is retained in its name in other languages, including French, Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Greek, Dutch and, up until the Second World War, Polish. At that time, and even into World War I, the function of destroyers was to protect their own battle fleet from enemy torpedo attacks. The task of escorting merchant convoys was still in the future, an important development came with the construction of HMS Swift in 1884, later redesignated TB81. This was a torpedo boat with four 47 mm quick-firing guns. At 23.75 knots, while still not fast enough to engage torpedo boats reliably. Another forerunner of the torpedo boat destroyer was the Japanese torpedo boat Kotaka, designed to Japanese specifications and ordered from the London Yarrow shipyards in 1885, she was transported in parts to Japan, where she was assembled and launched in 1887. The 165-foot long vessel was armed with four 1-pounder quick-firing guns and six torpedo tubes, reached 19 knots, in her trials in 1889, Kotaka demonstrated that she could exceed the role of coastal defense, and was capable of accompanying larger warships on the high seas. The Yarrow shipyards, builder of the parts for the Kotaka, the first vessel designed for the explicit purpose of hunting and destroying torpedo boats was the torpedo gunboat. Essentially very small cruisers, torpedo gunboats were equipped with torpedo tubes, by the end of the 1890s torpedo gunboats were made obsolete by their more successful contemporaries, the torpedo boat destroyers, which were much faster. The first example of this was HMS Rattlesnake, designed by Nathaniel Barnaby in 1885, the gunboat was armed with torpedoes and designed for hunting and destroying smaller torpedo boats. Exactly 200 feet long and 23 feet in beam, she displaced 550 tons, built of steel, Rattlesnake was un-armoured with the exception of a 3⁄4-inch protective deck
6.
Three-drum boiler
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Three-drum boilers are a class of water-tube boiler used to generate steam, typically to power ships. They are compact and of high power, factors that encourage this use. Other boiler designs may be efficient, although bulkier. The fundamental characteristic of the design is the arrangement of a steam drum above two water drums, in a triangular layout. Water tubes fill in the two sides of this triangle between the drums, and the furnace is in the centre, the whole assembly is then enclosed in a casing, leading to the exhaust flue. Firing can be by either coal or oil, many coal-fired boilers used multiple firedoors and teams of stokers, often from both ends. Development of the boiler began in the late 19th century, with the demand from naval ships that required high power. The move to water-tube boilers had already begun, with such as the Babcock & Wilcox or the Belleville. The three-drum arrangement was lighter and more compact for the same power, the new generation of small-tube water-tube boilers used water-tubes of around 2 inches diameter, compared to older designs of 3 or 4 inches. This gave a ratio of tube surface heating area to the tube volume. These small-tube boilers also became known as express boilers, although not all of these were three-drum designs, most were some variation of this. As the tubes of the three-drum are close to vertical, this encourages strong circulation by the thermosyphon effect, the development of the three-drum pattern was generally one of simplification, rather than increasing complexity or sophistication. Even the first boilers packed a large heating area into a volume, their difficulty was in manufacturing. The convoluted tubes of early designs such as the du Temple, a multi-row bank of tubes could provide adequate heating area, without this complexity. Tubes also became straighter, mostly to ease their cleaning, Yarrow had demonstrated that straight tubes did not cause any problems with expansion, but circular drums and perpendicular tube entry were both valuable features for a long service life. Where tubes entered drums at an angle, heating and cooling tended to bend the back and forth. A perpendicular entry was easier to expand the tubes for a reliable seal and it was worth the compromise of the Admiralty boilers bent tube ends to keep these two features, and these tubes were still simple enough in shape to clean easily. Some of the first boiler tubes, particularly the du Temple with its sharp corners, tubes were later cleaned internally by attempting to pass a hinged rod through, with a brush at the end
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United States Navy
Royal Navy