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Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
Portsmouth has been an important port since colonial times. Between 1694 and 1749 Portsmouth builders launched a number of ships for the King's service. During the Revolution they built the ship-of-the-line America, the frigate Raleigh, and the sloop of war Ranger. Between 1797 and 1799 the shipyard built the frigate Congress, the sloop-of-war Portsmouth, the revenue cutter Scammel, and the Algerian gift sloop-of-war Crescent.
In 1798 the United States Congress established the Navy Department; and the following year, they authorized the construction of six, newly classified frigates. The private shipyards used for government ships were too small for building frigates of high caliber and tonnage, so the Secretary of the Navy proposed the establishment of publicly owned shipyards to be responsible for this new class of frigate. Between 1800 and 1801 the Secretary of the Navy selected Portsmouth as one of six sites on the east coast that were ideal for the public shipyards. June 12, 1800 was the birth-date of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.
The following years demonstrated that the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was fully capable of building state-of-the-art warships. The 74-gun ship-of-the-line Washington was an example of its production prowess. Its first steamer, the side-wheel frigate Saranac, was built in preparation for the American Civil War. During the war the yard employed as many as 2,000 workers in the construction of two ironclads, seventeen steamers, and two tugs.
During 1862 additional land was purchased on Seavey's Island in order to build a hospital. No permanent structure was built on the island, but the rest of the island was bought for $105,000. There was hope that the gut between Dennett's Island and Seavey's Island could be used for a dry dock. The naval renaissance of the late 1880s and 1890s resulted in improvements to the yard. In 1890 Congress decided to appropriate $43,000 to build a hospital to replace the small facility that was built in 1834. By the end of the century, there was dire need for better dry docks that could handle the larger battleships and armored cruisers. Congress, therefore, authorized the building of a stone dry dock at Portsmouth on June 4, 1900. The $1,089,000 contract was given to the John Pierce Company of New York, calling for a 750-foot-long granite dock.
Since private contractors charged the government excessively for building submarines, Portsmouth was chosen as the new navy yard for building submarines. The Keel of L-8 (SS-48) was laid on February 24, 1915, and was delivered a couple of years later at an unexpectedly low price. During World War I the building capacity of the yard needed to be raised by lengthening the two ways in the Franklin Shiphouse to 340 feet and adding a pair of 340-foot, covered, double building slips. Although six boats were laid down during the war, only two started before America's involvement in battle. The yard repaired 122 vessels during World War I, and at its peak the yard employed 5,722 people, of whom about 1,000 were women.
Portsmouth continued to specialize in submarine work. During World War II the yard delivered sixty-seven more submarines and completed a pair begun elsewhere. In December 1943 the Portsmouth Navy Yard set a record for employment with 20,466 men and women. The Navy Department officially changed its name from the Portsmouth navy Yard to the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard on September 14, 1945. The yard's mission remained the same, and it continued to complete six submarines between 1945 and 1948. In addition, twenty other submarines received GUPPY (Greater Under Water Propulsion Power) treatments between the years 1947 and 1954, catching them up with modern technological innovations. In 1953 Portsmouth built an experimental submarine called the Albacore (AGSS-569), which proved to be groundbreaking. Its revolutionary "tear-drop" shaped hull and round cross-section, made it look more like a whale and the basic form of this type of hull, known as a hydrodynamic hull, has been followed in all subsequent submarine classes.
Construction ceased with the commissioning of the Sand Lance (SSN-660) on September 25, 1971, and with it, the yard's primary responsibility changed to the overhaul and repair of the fleet's nuclear submarines, instead of making new ones. As a result, employment fell from 8,400 in 1968 to 5,400 in 1973. Portsmouth Naval Shipyard was placed on the NPL (National Priorities List) in May 1994, after it was discovered that surface runoff and erosion were contaminating the Piscataqua River. Today, ground water remains contaminated in five surrounding sites. Estimated costs for clean-up total $406.8 million.
Sources:
- Coletta, Paolo E., Ed. United States Navy and Marine Corps Bases, Domestic. London: Greenwood Press, 1985. Pp. 497-502.
- Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (NSY) Portsmouth, New Hampshire
- Portsmouth Naval Shipyard
- Portsmouth Naval Shipyard (NSY) Kittery, Maine/ Portsmouth, New Hampshire
