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Puget Sound Naval Shipyard
An Act of Congress passed in September of 1891 created Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. Ambrose Barkley Wyckoff was the key figure in making it happen. He was a naval lieutenant who had first seen the region while assigned to the coast survey schooner Yukon in 1877. At the time, Washington was still a territory. Wyckoff managed to acquire the 190-acre site on the north shore of Puget Sound's Sinclair Inlet for the amazingly low price of $9,512.50. William Bremer sold the land at such a cheap price probably realizing he would profit later on sales of adjacent property to the new yard site. The town was named "Bremerton" after Mr. Bremer. Wyckoff had secured the land and, between the years of 1892 and 1896, work on the first dry dock took place, constructed out of native timber and limestone blocks.
The Sinclair Inlet naval repair base struggled to obtain the necessary funding to become what Wyckoff had envisioned. But due to his persistence and Congress becoming more inured to huge defense outlays, funds came in. Wyckoff's hard work paid off, in 1900 and 1901 his friend, Senator Allen, introduced two bills that were passed, appropriating about half a million dollars to build with. Its status had risen in July 1900 (by Navy General Order #56) from merely a naval station to a Naval Yard.
Wyckoff's successor, Capt. W. T. Burwell, USN, brought the Bremerton site to be far better equipped than earlier in basic capacity, especially skilled labor. A new battleship dry dock made of granite and concrete was completed in March 1913, measuring 847 feet long and tapered to 104 feet at the bottom. Its 37-foot depth was sufficient for any battleship then afloat or in the planning.
A lot of questions arose as to why there was a need for larger Navy yards on the pacific coast. The reason probably had to do with the secretive War Plan "Orange," code name for a contingency planning for war with Japan in case of a Japanese attack on the recently acquired Philippines. But it was with Imperial Germany -- not Japan -- with whom America would go to war. Eventually, the concern over Japan would be justified, but in 1941, many years later. Since Puget Sound was not ideally located to serve as a repair base for a war in the North Atlantic, the yard was switched from mostly overhaul work to new construction. The transition was quick with the yard, hastily adding resources for both berthing and building ships.
In 1916, Capt. L. E. Gregory, Public Works Officer, presented his ideas for new yard facilities, including suggestions from a yard draftsman, Victor Hulteen, for a third dry dock. This dock was a prototype that cost the same as traditional, shallow dry docks for new ship construction, but construction work could be carried on more easily, and launching difficulties would be greatly reduced, saving both time and money. The new type of dock was authorized in March 1917 and completed in January 1919.
During World War I, the shipyard built new ships including 25 submarine chasers, six submarines, two minesweepers, seven seagoing tugs, two ammunition ships (Nitro and Pyro) and 1,700 small boats. In addition, the yard manufactured shells and torpedo tubes.
From 1931 on War Plan Orange was almost certain to be necessary as Japan's Kwantung Army and supporters instituted a foreign policy of territorial expansion in Japan, already having seized Manchuria by force.
The Franklin D. Roosevelt administration showed much more support than Hoover's had and soon new piers were being built and the huge rolling Dravo Company hammerhead crane was employed. The crane reached out 115 feet to either side of the 1,200-foot outfitting pier, Pier 6, hoisting up to 250 tons. Dry dock 4 was authorized in 1935 and completed in 1940; its dimensions were 1,000 feet by 132 feet by 45 feet in depth over the sill. Employment at the yard rose dramatically from about 6,000 to 17,000 in 1940, as Hitler's legions were storming through France.
During World War II, repair of battle-damaged ships constituted the majority of the work accomplished, with a total of 334 fighting ships of all types repaired, overhauled, and modernized. In November 1945 the yard got its third name change when it became the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. One of its great accomplishments during the war was the repair and rehabilitation of five of the eight warships hit during the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Between 1947 and 1949 the work slowed, but was brought back up to speed with technical innovations and the Korean War of 1950-1953. As a result of the Korean War, the yard work force increased from 7,800 to 15,300 by mid-1952. The Korean armistice then began another slow decline in available work for the yard.
Dry Dock 5 had to be altered to accommodate the new super-carriers, but it was the contract in December of 1958 that brought the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard $32,645,000 to build a dry-dock 181 feet wide, 1,180 feet long, and 61 feet deep, one of the largest in the world. This was Dry Dock 6 and was completed in April 1962. In 1961 it was announced that Puget Sound would participate in the Navy's Nuclear Power Program. Soon afterward, a Power Division was staffed, submarine and nuclear power facility planning and construction were under way, personnel were being trained, and conventional submarines were overhauled. The late sixties and early seventies brought changes that updated the facilities of the shipyard in keeping with the Naval Ship Systems Command Engineered Long Range Modernization Program. It also marked the completion of some new classes of ships. A third AOE, the Detroit (AOE-4), as well as some LPDs and DEs were constructed, and the first CVA, the USS Constellation (CVA-64), was converted to the use of distillate fuel in the main propulsion plant.
Today, the shipyard covers 327 acres of hard land and 338 acres of submerged land. Included in the complex are nine piers, with 12,300 lineal feet of deep-water pier space, four moorings, 382 buildings with a total of 6,078,000 SF and six dry docks, of which Drydock No. 6 is the largest on the West Coast and is suitable for aircraft carriers. The facility acquisition cost is $433M and the plant equipment acquisition cost is $261M. And, in 1994 Puget Sound NSY had a civilian work force of 10,588 and military work force of 330. The total payroll was $550M.
Sources:
- Coletta, Paolo E., Ed. United States Navy and Marine Corps Bases, Domestic. London: Greenwood Press, 1985. Ppgs. 346-358.
