Boston Navy Yard - History

History

The earliest naval shipbuilding activities in Charlestown, Massachusetts, began during the American Revolutionary War. The land for the Charlestown Navy Yard was purchased in 1800 and the yard itself established shortly thereafter. The yard built the first U.S. ship of the line, USS Independence, but was primarily a repair and storage facility until the 1890s, when it started to build steel ships for the "New Navy". By then, it was called the Boston Navy Yard.

On June 24, 1833, the staff and dignitaries including Vice President Martin Van Buren, Secretary of War Lewis Cass, Secretary of the Navy Levi Woodbury, and many Massachusetts officials, witnessed "one of the great events of American naval history": the United States frigate Constitution was inaugurating the first naval drydock in New England designed by prominent civil engineer Loammi Baldwin, Jr.. On March 14, 1975, the historic ship floated out of the dock—the last commissioned vessel to use the facility.

The Ropewalk supplied cordage used in the Navy from the time it opened in 1837 until the Yard closed in 1975. After the Civil War, the Yard was downgraded to an Equipment and Recruit Facility.

In the 1890s, the Navy began expanding and that brought new life to the Yard. In the first years of the 20th century, a second drydock was added. During WWII, it worked to fix British Ships damaged by the Germans. On 27 September 1941 Liberty Fleet Day Boston launched two destroyers USS Cowie and USS Knight. In November 1941, Boston was one of four United States naval shipyards selected to build Captain class frigates as Lend-Lease for the Royal Navy. Since the United States was at war when these ships were completed, some were used by the United States Navy as destroyer escorts. In the post war period, the shipyard modified World War II ships for Cold War service through Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization (FRAM). The Korean War and Vietnam War didn't bring much work to the Yard since it was so far from the fighting.