Charleston Navy Yard

Building 5, Charlestown Navy Yard, Boston, MA 02109

The Charlestown Navy Yard operated for nearly 175 years from the age of sail to the age of steel. The U.S. Navy promoted and protected American interests across the globe, and Charlestown Navy Yard workers provided the Navy with ships and supplies. They worked on American ships as well as other allies when necessary. The Yard also served as the center of production for rope, anchors, and anchor chains for the entire Navy. Throughout it’s operation this yard built thousands of ships built by tens of thousands of workers from the War of 1812 through the cold war. The federal government closed the Yard in 1974 and set aside 30 acres to serve as a national historic site.

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The newly-formed United States emerged from its War of Independence facing threats to its overseas trade. As recommended by President George Washington in 1794, Congress passed the Navy Act, approving the construction of six frigates. This act reestablished the United States Navy that originated as the Continental Navy during the American Revolution. One of those six frigates from 1794 was the USS Constitution.

The US Navy established the Charlestown Navy Yard along with five other navy yards along the Atlantic coast of the 16-state union.

The first ship built in the Boston Navy Yard was the USS Independence in 1814. As the biggest ship, called a ship-of-the-line, in the early US Navy, it served alongside smaller frigates like the USS Constitution.

Workers in the Yard built and repaired ships that challenged the British Navy in the War of 1812. Among those ships repaired in the Yard were five of the original six frigates ordered in 1794.

A modernization period began in the US Navy in the 1880s, called the era of the New Navy. The US Congress authorized the building of a fleet of steel warships. By 1915, the Navy had expanded the Yard by constructing nearly 50 new buildings and further developing the Yard's railroad system. The US Navy was becoming one of the world’s largest navies.

When the U.S. formally entered World War I (WWI) in 1917, the US Navy had the large task of transporting thousands of US Army soldiers to France and back. Charlestown Navy Yard workers converted three captured German ocean liners and other ships into troop transports; one of the converted liners, the USS America, made nine round trips. Yard workers repaired and outfitted over 450 ships during WWI including battleships and submarines.

Starting in the 1930s, workers in the Charlestown Navy Yard started the biggest ship-building and ship-repair era in the history of the Charlestown Navy Yard. By the time World War II (WWII) ended in 1945, workers in the Yard launched over 6,000 naval vessels. Destroyers that took one year to complete in 1941 were finished in only 3-4 months by 1945. Due to increased production during WWII, the Charlestown Navy Yard did not have enough space to complete the workload. In response, the Navy built additional facilities at the South Boston Annex along Boston's Outer Harbor.

Over half the ships ever built in the Yard were built by its workforce during WWII when the Yard had over 50,000 employees. During this time of crisis, the Navy Yard opened its doors to women and people of color. For the first time, the opportunity to make livable wages was available to thousands of people.

(See Royal Navy Plaque for how the Boston/Charleston Navy Yard helped the British Fleet)

This is one of the many connections of how America and Britain forgave the past and became allies during the World Wars, solidifying them into the prophesied Anglo-American World Power as described in Daniel.

-Source Links-

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/charlestown-navy-yard.htm