Norfolk Naval Shipyard
Located in Portsmouth, Virginia, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard is the Navy's largest and oldest continuously-operating facility for servicing, building and repairing its ships. Since its inception as a British Naval Yard in the 1700s, it has built, repaired, overhauled and dry-docked thousands of U.S. Navy ships and submarines. In recent years, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard has also made its services available to private industry.
The current official mission of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard is to "provide logistic support for assigned ships and service craft, perform authorized work in connection with construction, conversion, overhaul, repair, dry docking and outfitting of ships and craft as assigned, perform manufacturing, research, development and test work as assigned, and to provide services and material to other activities and units as directed by competent authority."
Norfolk Naval Shipyard History
The Norfolk Naval Shipyard predates the U.S. Navy Department by 31 years. It was established as the Gosport Shipyard on November 1, 1767 by Scotsman Andrew Sprowle and quickly became an important shipyard, outfitting and repairing ships for the British crown. Just eight years later, at the start of the American Revolution, Sprowle fled Virginia, and his properties - including the shipyard - were confiscated by the newly formed Commonwealth of Virginia. In 1779, the shipyard was burnt by British troops and it was not reopened until 1794, when "An Act to Provide Naval Armament" was passed by the U.S. Congress. That act allowed the U.S. government to lease the Gosport Shipyard from the Commonwealth of Virginia and to operate it as a holding of the United States Navy.
At the start of the Civil War, the commander of the shipyard at Norfolk ordered it burned to avoid its being overtaken by Confederate forces. Despite the orders, the shipyard was eventually commandeered by the Confederacy. After assuming command, the Confederates discovered that in their hasty attempt to burn the shipyard, the federal shipyard workers had left behind the half-burned hull of the USS Merrimack. The Confederate navy used the remainder of the ship to build the ironclad CSS Virginia, which engaged in battle with the USS Monitor during the Civil War, and became one of the most notorious ships involved in the conflict.
At its peak during World War II, Norfolk employed approximately 43,000 shipyard workers. It built nearly 30 major ships for the navy and repaired over 6,500 U.S. and Allied ships. In addition, there were 20 tank landing ships and 50 medium landing craft built at Norfolk during those years. During the Korean War, Norfolk completed work on another 1,250 naval vessels and built two minesweepers. In 1965, Norfolk acquired nuclear technology capability and overhauled the USS Skate, the first modern submarine to be overhauled there.
Norfolk is also the home of the first dry dock in the western hemisphere, Dry Dock 1, which is still in use. Dry Dock 1 is now a national historic landmark, but it continues to service ships.
Throughout its 230 years, the yard has commissioned and fitted ships that were used in nine major wars, helped put an end to piracy, sent the Great White Fleet around the world, helped open Japan to American trade, and assisted in the scientific exploration of the Pacific Ocean.
Norfolk Naval Shipyard Today
In the years following World War II, NNSY suffered the same fate as other naval facilities. Still, it remains the East Coast's busiest shipyard, handling repairs, dry dock services, and refitting and overhauling ships for both the U.S. Navy and for private contractors. Unfortunately, it was also one of the largest Superfund cleanup sites in the country.
Norfolk Naval Shipyard Superfund Site
In 1998, it was proposed that Norfolk Naval Shipyard be placed on the National Priorities List for cleanup of toxic wastes. According to the proposal filed at that time, activities conducted at the naval shipyard included "metal forming, repair and installation of mechanical and electrical equipment, metal fabrication, metal plating, and painting operations". Those activities generated industrial wastes in large amounts. The wastes listed included scrap metal, hydraulic oils, machine oils, PCBs, paint solvents, paints and paint sludge, asbestos, residue from sandblasting, thinners, plating wastes and cleaning solutions. Norfolk Naval Shipyard was indeed added to the National Priorities List in 1999 and has become a model River Star site in the cleanup program.
Among the most potent of the hazardous wastes found at the Naval Shipyard is asbestos. Like all shipyards in the past century, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard used asbestos heavily in shipbuilding and for insulating purposes. It has been estimated that there were more than 300 hazardous products in use at the shipyard from the 1930s through the 1980s, including spray-on insulation, asbestos paint, boiler liner, pipe insulation and boiler insulation. Asbestos was also used in making much of the equipment and machinery that was used at the Norfolk Navy Shipyard. The many thousands of employees and seamen who worked at the Norfolk Navy Shipyard may have been exposed to airborne asbestos in the course of their work, and today, many are experiencing the ill effects of that exposure.
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