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.
William Cramp & Sons
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William Cramp & Sons Shipbuilding Company of Philadelphia was founded in 1830 by William Cramp, and was the preeminent U. S. iron shipbuilder of the late 19th century. In 1890 the company built the battleships USS Indiana and USS Massachusetts, armored cruiser USS New York, three of these ships took a part in the battle with the Spanish fleet in 1898 at Santiago de Cuba. In 1940, the Navy spent $22 million to reopen the yard as Cramp Shipbuilding to build cruisers, Cramp used the long slipways to construct two submarines at a time, with the intention of launching them simultaneously. However, the submarine construction program was not especially successful. The first delivery was made two years after laying, and fitting out was then done by Portsmouth Navy Yard. The best construction time for a submarine was 644 days, Cramp closed in 1947 and the site, on the Delaware River in Philadelphias Port Richmond neighborhood, became an industrial park. SS Valencia, an ocean liner built for the Red D Line in 1882. She was wrecked on the coastline of Vancouver Island, on January 22,1906, valencias loss is considered one of the worst shipwrecks in the region known as the Graveyard of the Pacific. USS New York, was launched on 2 December 1891 and became flagship of Admiral William T. Sampsons squadron during the Spanish–American War, USS Indiana, Battleship No.1 of the United States Navy, launched 28 February 1893. SS St. Louis and SS St. Paul —the first major ocean liners built in the United States after the collapse of the Collins Line in the 1850s, varyag contracted by Russian Imperial Admiralty, launched October 31,1899. The cruiser was sunk by the crew in Russo-Japanese War, salvaged by the Japanese, SS Evangeline, a coastal passenger liner built in 1927 for the Eastern Steamship Company. While operating as the cruise ship Yarmouth Castle in 1965, she caught fire, on 6 September 1941, the keel for the Cleveland-class light cruiser designated CL-90 was laid down by the Cramp Shipbuilding Company. On 6 March 1943, CL-90 USS Astoria was launched, on 8 December 1942, the keel to the Cleveland-class light cruiser designated CL-91, was laid down by the Cramp Shipbuilding Company. On 22 April 1943, Oklahomans were outraged, having just learned that the Japanese had executed the captured American pilots from Jimmy Doolittles bombing raid over Tokyo. That same day, booths were set up in Oklahoma City with the a goal to sell $40 million in War Bonds to fund the construction of a cruiser and that goal was topped by $5 million when the booths closed that night. CL-91 then became the USS Oklahoma City, the last ship Cramps built was the cruiser USS Galveston, launched on April 22,1945. SSW of Pensacola Pass, Pensacola, Florida Philadelphia Naval Shipyard Lewis Nixon and Arthur Leopold Busch, ships Built - Cramp Shipbuilding, Philadelphia
4.
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
5.
United States Navy
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The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U. S. Navy is the largest, most capable navy in the world, the U. S. Navy has the worlds largest aircraft carrier fleet, with ten in service, two in the reserve fleet, and three new carriers under construction. The service has 323,792 personnel on duty and 108,515 in the Navy Reserve. It has 274 deployable combat vessels and more than 3,700 operational aircraft as of October 2016, the U. S. Navy traces its origins to the Continental Navy, which was established during the American Revolutionary War and was effectively disbanded as a separate entity shortly thereafter. It played a role in the American Civil War by blockading the Confederacy. It played the role in the World War II defeat of Imperial Japan. The 21st century U. S. Navy maintains a global presence, deploying in strength in such areas as the Western Pacific, the Mediterranean. The Navy is administratively managed by the Department of the Navy, the Department of the Navy is itself a division of the Department of Defense, which is headed by the Secretary of Defense. The Chief of Naval Operations is an admiral and the senior naval officer of the Department of the Navy. The CNO may not be the highest ranking officer in the armed forces if the Chairman or the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The mission of the Navy is to maintain, train and equip combat-ready Naval forces capable of winning wars, deterring aggression, the United States Navy is a seaborne branch of the military of the United States. The Navys three primary areas of responsibility, The preparation of naval forces necessary for the prosecution of war. The development of aircraft, weapons, tactics, technique, organization, U. S. Navy training manuals state that the mission of the U. S. Armed Forces is to prepare and conduct prompt and sustained combat operations in support of the national interest, as part of that establishment, the U. S. Navys functions comprise sea control, power projection and nuclear deterrence, in addition to sealift duties. It follows then as certain as that night succeeds the day, that without a decisive naval force we can do nothing definitive, the Navy was rooted in the colonial seafaring tradition, which produced a large community of sailors, captains, and shipbuilders. In the early stages of the American Revolutionary War, Massachusetts had its own Massachusetts Naval Militia, the establishment of a national navy was an issue of debate among the members of the Second Continental Congress. Supporters argued that a navy would protect shipping, defend the coast, detractors countered that challenging the British Royal Navy, then the worlds preeminent naval power, was a foolish undertaking. Commander in Chief George Washington resolved the debate when he commissioned the ocean-going schooner USS Hannah to interdict British merchant ships, and reported the captures to the Congress
6.
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
7.
Sampson-class destroyer
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The Sampson-class destroyers served in the United States Navy during World War I. Commissioned in 1916 and 1917, the class was a modification of the OBrien and Tucker classes, the Sampsons were the final six ships of the 26 thousand tonner destroyers. They were the largest and most heavily armed of the thousand tonners, and the subsequent flush deck classes differed mainly in hull design, both the gun and torpedo armament would remain standard through the mass-production flush-deck Wickes and Clemson classes commissioned through 1921. As with the thousand tonners, a factor in the size of the torpedo armament was the General Boards decision to use broadside rather than centerline torpedo tubes. The Mark 8 torpedo was equipped and this was the first US destroyer class to mount anti-aircraft guns, two 1 pounder autocannons. Anti-submarine armament was added during World War I, typically, a single depth charge track was provided aft, along with a Y-gun depth charge projector. The Sampson class served in World War I as convoy escorts in the Atlantic, wilkes and Shaw served in the United States Coast Guard as part of the Rum Patrol 1926-34. The six ships of the Sampson class were, Friedman, Norman, US Destroyers, An Illustrated Design History. Janes Fighting Ships of World War I, London, Random House Group, Ltd.2001. Warships of World War I, ISBN 0-71100-095-6, warships of World War II, ISBN 0-87021-773-9. Gardiner, Robert, Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships 1906-1921, London, gardiner, Robert and Chesneau, Roger, Conways All the Worlds Fighting Ships 1922-1946, London, Conway Maritime Press,1980. This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships
8.
Wickes-class destroyer
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The Wickes-class destroyers were a class of 111 destroyers built by the United States Navy in 1917–19. Along with the 6 preceding Caldwell-class and 156 subsequent Clemson-class destroyers, only a few were completed in time to serve in World War I, including USS Wickes, the lead ship of the class. While some were scrapped in the 1930s, the rest served through World War II, most of these were converted to other uses, nearly all in U. S. service had half their boilers and one or more stacks removed to increase fuel and range or accommodate troops. Others were transferred to the British Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy, All were scrapped within a few years after World War II. The destroyer type was at time a relatively new class of fighting ship for the U. S. Navy. The type arose in response to torpedo boats that had been developing from 1865, a series of destroyers had been built over the preceding years, designed for high smooth water speed, with indifferent results, especially poor performance in heavy seas and poor fuel economy. The lesson of these destroyers was the appreciation of the need for true seakeeping and seagoing abilities. There were few cruisers in the Navy, which was a fleet of battleships and destroyers so destroyers performed scouting missions. A report of October 1915 by Captain W. S. Sims noted that the smaller destroyers used fuel far too quickly, and that war games showed the need for fast vessels with a larger radius of action. As a result, the size of U. S. destroyer classes increased steadily, starting at 450 tons and rising to over 1,000 tons between 1905 and 1916. The increase in size has never stopped, with some US Arleigh Burke-class destroyers now up to 10,800 tons full load. With World War I then in its year and tensions between the U. S. and Germany increasing, the U. S. needed to expand its navy. The Naval Appropriation Act of 1916 called for a second to none. The Act authorized 10 battleships,6 Lexington-class battlecruisers,10 Omaha-class scout cruisers, a subsequent General Board recommendation for further destroyers to combat the submarine threat resulted in a total of 267 Wickes- and Clemson-class destroyers completed. However, the design of the ships remained optimized for operation with the battleship fleet, the requirements of the new design were high speed and mass production. The development of warfare during World War I created a requirement for destroyers in numbers that had not been contemplated before the war. A top speed of 35 knots was needed for operation with the Lexington battlecruisers, the final design had a flush deck and four smokestacks. It was a fairly straightforward evolution of the preceding Caldwell class, General dissatisfaction with the earlier 1,000 ton designs led to the fuller hull form of the flush deck type
9.
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
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United States Navy
Royal Navy