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Charlestown Navy Yard

Boston National Historical Park Massachusetts

U.S. Department of the Interior Washington, DC

Contents

Part 1 The Making of a Navy 6 Prologue 9 Growth of the Yard 11 The Coming of Iron and Steam 29 The New Navy 45 The Yard Transformed 63 Part 2 Visiting Charlestown Navy Yard 78

Part 1 The Making of a Navy

Prologue

The U.S. government established Charlestown Navy Yard as the newly-formed republic was meeting early challenges to its merchant shipping. In the decade after gaining independence, the young nation kept no standing navy. But continuing raids on U.S. commerce by Barbary pirates and French privateers in the 1790s spurred Congress to authorize the construction of new warships.

Realizing that existing private shipyards were inadequate for the increasingly ambitious shipbuilding program, the Secretary of the Navy established in 1800-1801 six federal yards to build, outfit, repair, and supply naval vessels. These facilities at Portsmouth, N.H.; Boston; New York; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; and Norfolk, Va., were the nucleus of the naval shipyard system. Except during the Civil War, they launched most of the Navy's vessels until the advent of steel hulls in the 1880s, when private yards began building them in greater numbers.

As with the first six, later naval shipyards were sometimes created to fill an immediate military need. The War of 1812, for instance, prompted the building of the two Great Lakes yards. The Mound City yard was established during the Civil War, strategically located near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to build and repair Union gunboats. Although U.S. naval vessels are today built in private shipyards, four navy yards still actively serve the fleet.

Growth of the Yard

Bainbridge, who at 37 had already seen extensive naval action and been imprisoned by Barbary pirates, wrote soon after becoming commandant in 1812: "No period of my naval life has been more industrious or fatiguing." He was shorthanded and hampered by bad weather, conditions that must have sorely tested the endurance of a man with his temperament: aggressive, volatile, not noted for his patience. When he took command of the Charlestown yard, Bainbridge pressed the Washington bureaucracy to authorize improvements to a facility that suffered, in his words, from "mismanagement and neglect."

Years later, Bainbridge was typically blunt in depicting for the Secretary of the Navy what he saw as the Herculean task assigned him in 1812. The yard had been "in a state of perfect chaos. The public property in a state of ruin and decay ... a boat could not approach at certain periods of the tide within five hundred feet of the shore ... it was even exposed to the inroads of the cattle from highway."

The commandant's hilltop house surveyed 25 acres of scattered buildings and grassy tidal flats directly across the "stream" from Boston. There was a marine barracks, a parade ground, carpenter and blacksmith shops, a timber shed, a small hospital, a saltwater timber dock, and piles of cannon, shot, iron, and ballast. The facility Bainbridge took over in 1812 was in truth more supply depot than shipyard.

On resuming command in March 1813 he lobbied again for a wharf and building slip. As a well-known ship's captain he was used to getting the attention of the Navy Department. But his sphere of activity had shifted from quarterdeck to desktop, and he had to watch coveted funds go to ships bound for sea. He was not, however, one to hold his tongue. He bombarded the Secretary of the Navy with letters until the wharf and slip were finally begun in April 1813. After the laying of the 74's keel in May, Bainbridge was relentless in his requests for more improvements--a navy store, capstans for hauling out ships, "shears" for installing masts, a ropewalk.

Guarding United States property at the Charlestown yard was normally the responsibility of the U.S. Marines, stationed there since 1802. But it was a small detachment, not enough to defend the yard and its ships against a serious attack. Bainbridge, who earlier protested the vulnerability of the yard, had other problems with the marines. Though they were under naval command while at sea, on shore the Navy had no authority over them. Bainbridge deplored this situation, complaining that his inability to mete out the same corporal punishment to marines as was used on sailors was "productive of insubordination."

But the war he wanted so badly to join remained out of Bainbridge's reach. Desertions, along with financial and outfitting delays, held up the vessel until 1815, by which time peace with England had been concluded.

Congress was spurred to finish the job by the actions of Revolutionary France during its war with Britain. French commerce raiders so terrorized American neutral shipping that in 1798 an angry U.S. government created the Navy Department and prepared for war. Congress authorized funds to build, borrow, or accept as gifts 49 vessels, ranging from galleys to six 74-gun ships-of-the-line.

The 74s were never built, but while the program was still alive, naval shipyards to build them were established in Portsmouth, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Norfolk. Boston, wrote Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert to President John Adams, from "the natural strength of its situation , the great number of ship carpenters in its vicinity, and of its seamen, must always remain a building place and place of rendezvous for our navy of the first importance." Thus in 1800 the Charlestown Navy Yard was established.

For most of its history Charlestown's primary mission was to keep the fleet sailing. That is not to say the yard wasn't a shipbuilder; it built more than 200 warships over its 174 years of operation. But most of the new ships were built to meet the immediate demands of war. For fully half of those years no new ships came down the ways. The pattern established in the yard's early years was one of ongoing repair, outfitting, supply, and conversion work punctuated by occasional new launchings.

But the War of 1812, which helped shape a practical role for the 19th-century Navy, also led lawmakers into an expensive attempt to compete with European navies on their terms. Using the argument that large, powerful ships were essential to the defense of the nation's shores , Congress also authorized four 74-gun ships-of-the-line in the 1813 act.

While ships-of-the-line were traditionally used in fleet actions with set lines of battle , they were also deployed to break blockades and to "show the flag"--that is, remind other nations of the United States' military reach. Postwar nationalism, a popular navy still basking in the nation's praise, and the country's demonstrated vulnerability to blockade prompted appropriations in 1816 for additional 74s.

The yard had become more self-sufficient. The boilers for the dry dock pump engines also provided steam for the new sawmill and blockmaking and armorer's shops. In 1837, the yard's ropewalk and tar house had been completed . The yard now made its own paint in the "oil house," while hardware was supplied by a large smithy with 12 forges.

Other significant additions: masting shears looming over the new shear wharf; a sparmaker's shed, masthouse, and sail loft; new timber docks; a steam chest for bending wood; an armory with thousands of muskets, bayonets, and swords; and neat ranks of guns, shot, and anchors in their respective "parks." Hundreds of elm trees planted by order of Commodore Bainbridge softened the yard's industrial setting.

Anchored out in the harbor were several vessels "in ordinary." A vessel in ordinary was out of service and in storage with a skeleton crew until recommissioned. The ship was demasted, salted to retard dry rot, whitewashed inside, tightly caulked, and its sides and decks "payed" with a thick coat of varnish and tar. Tubular windsails directing air belowdecks and holes cut in the bulkheads insured good air circulation. Some vessels in ordinary at Charlestown had protective wood and canvas sheds over their decks, an innovation of Captain Hull.

Although this was a U.S. Navy Yard run by naval officers, throughout its history those wielding the caulking mallets and rivet guns were civilians working for civilian foremen. During the first half of the 19th century the yard's workforce steadily increased from 89 in 1822 to 370 in 1853. At mid-century the records show most of them were born in New England--half from Massachusetts. Some 15 percent were Irish, the majority working as laborers.

So complicated an undertaking as the building of a warship required an array of specialized occupations falling under the general label of "mechanics": carpenters, sawyers, joiners, sparmakers, blockmakers, painters, gun carriage makers, armorers, sailmakers, blacksmiths, caulkers, riggers, boatbuilders, coopers, ropemakers, masons, machinists, plumbers, and coppersmiths. A force of unskilled laborers was at times supplemented by the ordinary crews and by the sailors stationed at the yard.

A look at the young men in the apprenticeship program, started in 1817, gives a clearer picture of the yard employees they would become. Those applying for the program--generally at age 16--had to show good character and be physically able to perform the tasks of their trade. They had to demonstrate the ability to read, write, and do simple math. The terms of the five-year indenture were generally clear: in return for exhibiting growing mastery of his trade, the apprentice received from the Navy room and board, increasing pay, and continuing education in reading, writing, arithmetic, and theories of the trade. But because the indenture was technically a personal contract between the boy's parents or guardian and the master, not the Navy, questions of obligation sometimes arose when a new man became master. At the end of the apprenticeship--usually at age 21--the boy became a yard employee.

Navy Yard Tradesmen in the Age of Sail

During the early 19th century, Charlestown's shipyard bell called several hundred civilian tradesmen and laborers to work each morning. Laboring from sunrise to sunset under the supervision of naval officers and civilian shop masters, these yard employees built, repaired, and supplied United States warships for naval duty around the globe. Fluctuating government budgets, changing seasons, and the uneven demands of war and peace made navy yard work intermittent and unpredictable.

The Ropewalk

Several factors enticed the U.S. Navy into constructing its only ropemaking facility at the Charlestown Navy Yard in the 1830s: skilled labor, access to raw materials, and technical expertise. The port of Boston already boasted more than a dozen ropewalks employing many skilled artisans. Perhaps most importantly, the Navy was eager to take advantage of newly developed labor-saving machines like those already in use in New England's textile mills. Because rope had to be twisted in a straight line, the maximum length that could be produced was determined by the length of the ropewalk . The Charlestown ropewalk's quarter-mile length allowed production of rope up to 1200 feet long. Designed by architect Alexander Parris , the ropewalk complex included the rope "laying" area running the length of the building, spinning and preparing machine rooms, the hemp house, and the tar house. The complex was powered by massive steam engines and tended by men and boys. The Navy's move to mechanized rope production came at a critical time, as machine-spun rope began to replace intricate hand-spinning techniques. The hand spinners' resistance inspired contests in the 1840s, in which they challenged the quality of machine-made rope. The results of such a challenge to the Charlestown ropewalk were somewhat ironic. Though its machine-made rope proved to be stronger and cheaper to produce, hand-spun rope was superior in the smaller sizes, and the mechanized ropewalk began producing some hand-spun rope, doing so until the end of the 19th century.

Budget-minded Naval Commissioners in Washington allowed the commandant to pay just enough to hold on to his workers. He generally matched the rates of private shipyards in the area to keep workers from being lured away. The daily rates thus fell with the coming of cold weather and the slowing of work, since the workers were then in low demand elsewhere. The Navy defended this hard-nosed practice, maintaining that with fewer daylight hours , the yard got less work out of the men. The niggardly pay policies sometimes backfired: in 1821 the low-paid sailmakers left en masse to work at private yards.

More than the skilled craftsmen, the laborers' jobs depended on the amount of work at the yard, but most of the workforce awaited the coming of cold weather with some anxiety. The yard's practice was to retain only as many people as it could keep working, and bad weather sharply reduced the volume of work. The completion of a new ship or of a major repair job also meant the letting go of large numbers of workers, at least until the next job. In effect many in the workforce were not given permanent jobs, but only hired on to perform seasonal work, much like house carpenters, or to complete a single project.

Though the situation was normally weighted in favor of the employer, the scales could occasionally tip the other way, especially for skilled workers. In 1825, when the coming of spring coincided with a surge in building brought on by a recent Boston fire, Commandant William Crane was forced to raise wages to compete for skilled workers. He sent his Master Builder Josiah Barker up the coast as far as Portland to recruit mechanics.

At times skilled workers attempted to force the Navy's hand, organizing to protest conditions. When the caulkers struck for higher wages in January 1835, the commandant, Commodore Jesse Elliott, fired them and quickly found others willing to work at the established rate. Two days later the "refractory caulkers," unable to find work in the middle of the winter, asked to be rehired at their old wages. Wanting to remain on good terms with his employees, Elliott allowed the men to return.

These actions represent a period when the yard workers, though not yet unionized, could strike--an option later denied to government employees. While workers were generally forced to accept the prevailing pay and conditions at the yard, they were not completely without power.

In the Charlestown Navy Yard's first half-century, world events, U.S. politics, and sectional rivalries affected the ebb and flow of work and the hiring and firing of men. The yard was born in the midst of a world at war and grew to prominence in a time of relative calm--in retrospect, the lull before the storm of civil war.

Building a Wooden Ship

The creation of a wooden warship began in the mold loft. There carpenters translated specifications from standard plans for each class of vessel into full-sized wooden patterns. These were used to fashion hull members, for which white oak or live oak were the favored woods. On the slightly inclined building ways, joiners first laid the keel, the great spine of the ship running along the bottom of the hull. Then they attached the stem and the stern post to the keel and raised the frames--the vessel's ribs. The frames formed the contours of the hull and, together with horizontal deck beams and vertical stanchions beneath the beams, provided a strong skeleton. After 1829, iron and copper bolts and spikes replaced many of the wooden "treenails" that secured the structural members and fastened the deck and hull planking. The rudder was hung, the hull caulked and sheathed with copper to protect it from teredo worms, and the ship was launched. Riggers then "stepped" masts to the keelson, a lengthwise beam bolted to the keel . After they rigged the horizontal spars, cordage, and sails, the new warship was ready for outfitting.

The Workforce in 1835 138 Carpenters 56 Ropemakers 40 Laborers 37 Joiners 34 Blacksmiths 25 Sailmakers 19 Riggers 18 Coopers 17 Plumbers 16 Boatbuilders 14 Sparmakers 12 Blockmakers 11 Painters 6 Caulkers 6 Masons 6 Sawyers

Specifications: Length overall: 204 ft. Beam : 43.5 ft. Displacement: 2,200 tons Draft: 22.5 ft. Hull: 15 to 20 in. thick Speed: 13-14 knots Crew: 450-470 Armament in 1812: 30, 24-pounders; 22, 32-pounder carronades; two 24-pounder & one 18-pounder bow chasers on the forecastle

The Coming of Iron and Steam

But the main problem was that early steamers were driven by big, ungainly sidewheels that caused captains no end of problems . They so harmed a vessel's sailing qualities that steam was of necessity the primary power source on sidewheelers--but the Navy wanted to use steam only as auxiliary power.

With propellers, even the most hidebound captains could appreciate the better maneuverability steam gave them during combat. Gradually the tactical roles of steam and sail were reversed, with increasingly efficient and dependable steam engines officially becoming the primary power source and sail the auxiliary. As a matter of economy, however, American vessels continued to use sail whenever possible on long-distance cruises.

As in every war, technology helped shape strategy in the Civil War and strategic considerations helped determine how new technologies were applied. The Navy's major role in the war effort was to blockade some 3,500 miles of Southern coastline. The South's blockade runners were typically the most advanced examples of British shipbuilding, steam-powered sidewheelers that were often iron- or steel-hulled. In the first year of the war, only about one in eleven of these runners were caught , and the Union Navy continued to build, borrow, and buy every vessel it could to strengthen the blockade.

Steam Propulsion

The Charlestown yard had in 1858 initiated its first machinist apprenticeship, acknowledging the inevitable transformation of the yard's work. Steam had somewhat prepared the way for the yard's artisans to work with iron: those already trained as boilermakers could adapt their skills to ironcladding. But increasingly the trades related to steam machinery and ironcladding were formalized with titles and apprenticeships. Through the 1850s and '60s, machinists, iron moulders, and boilermakers accounted for an increasingly large part of the workforce: from a total of 26 in 1854 to 371 in 1866. But even though such trades were necessary in the yard by the mid-1860s, they were still in the minority and were paid less, considered less exacting and more easily mastered than the old wooden ship trades.

Samuel Cochran, a longtime employee at Charlestown, recalled later in life that when he arrived at the yard as a young man during the Civil War "the majority of the men employed were ship carpenters and joiners and most of the tools they used were cross cut saws and axes." His own job was to turn the grindstone on which they were sharpened.

Cochran went on to paint a vivid picture of the yard during the war years when some 3,000 workers held jobs there: the ordnance workers who had the dangerous job of retrieving powder from the magazine, donning canvas slippers to reduce the chance of sparks; the clandestine barrels of liquor in cellars, complete with drinking straws; the yard "politicians" who owed their jobs to patronage; sawyers in their six-foot-deep sawpits; the sailors on the receiving ships finding new ways to get extra grog on board.

A minor labor grievance in 1861 illustrates how the exigencies of war changed the working atmosphere at the yard and reduced the workers' leverage. As it had in 1852, the government decided that yard employees should work sunrise to sunset from September to March, thus bringing their hours in line with those of private yard workers. Again the workers protested, although they continued to work, stating in their petition that they had no desire to hinder the government's campaign to "crush out a foul rebellion." This time the Navy made no concessions. Two strikes in 1862 over the same issue were half-hearted and futile; the longer hours remained in effect.

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