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Boston Navy Yard - Boston Navy Yard 1945-Present

After World War II, the Boston Navy Yard started on a program of modernizing the Navy fleet's aging vessels. The ships were brought to the Boston Navy Yard to be fitted with new electronics and radar and sonar equipment. While shipbuilding activities ceased at the Boston Navy Yard, there was a great deal of maintenance and upgrade work completed.

Immediately following the World War, the Boston Navy Yard began the process of demobilizing and storing warships. At the South Boston Naval Annex, workers and crews demobilized, cleaned, repaired and stored 19 escort carriers. At other Boston Navy Yard facilities, work was beginning to prepare for another phase in the Yard's usefulness. The shipyard so famous for its innovative used of technology was about to impart that innovation to the ships on which it worked.

In 1950, the Boston Navy Yard began a program of converting destroyers and destroyer escorts for peacetime duties as radar pickets. Over the next twenty five years, the Boston Navy Yard worked as part of the Fleet Rehabilitation and Modernization program, a program designed to modernize and update the lifespan of World War II era destroyers, many of which had been built at the Navy Yard. The Boston Navy Yard was part of the FRAM program throughout the 1960s. The USS Perry was one of the first ships to be modernized in this program. The modernization was expected to add five to seven years to the lifespan of each destroyer. The program continued through the 1960s and was phased out as the last of the World War II destroyer class ships was outfitted.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the United States once again was involved in armed conflict. The Korean War had had little effect on the fortunes of the Boston shipyard, and the conflict in Vietnam similarly did not bring life back to the slowing Navy Yard.

When the country geared up for war again in Southeast Asia, the Boston Navy Yard was considered too far from the fields of operation to be of use. Faced with a ship yard that was too small, the Navy decided to cut defense costs by closing the shipyard that had served it so well for nearly a century and three quarters. The Boston Navy Yard was officially disestablished and closed on July 1, 1974, ending an era of Naval Shipbuilding in Boston.

However, the portion of the Charlestown Navy Yard that housed the original dry dock and several support buildings was deeded to the National Park Service. It is now a part of the Boston National Historical Park and serves as the docking place and home of the USS CONSTITUTION, affectionately referred to as Old Ironsides, and of the USS CASSIN YOUNG. Each ship has been restored and serves as a museum and exhibit of classes of warships that were built at the Boston Navy Yard (formerly the Charlestown Navy Yard) in its heyday.

Today, the Boston Navy Yard, the museum and the U.S. Navy ships are tourist attractions that draw hundreds of thousands of visitors annually to learn about the role that the Boston Navy Yard and the ships built there played in the naval superiority of the United States.

The USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned warship still afloat in the world. In addition to the ship itself, the National Park Service and the U.S. Navy also maintain the USS Constitution Museum in a historic building just across the pier from the still floating naval ship.

The other ship that is on display at the Boston Navy Yard is the USS CASSIN YOUNG, a naval ship of World War II destroyer class. Together, the two ships represent over 100 years of U.S. Naval History. For more information about specific ships built at the Boston Navy Yard, please see Boston Navy Yard - Famous Ships Built.

Few of the tourists, however, understand the dangers and risks that were faced by the men and women who worked at the Boston Navy Yard throughout the twentieth century. The work of building, repairing and outfitting ships was hard and dangerous, and some of the dangers were more subtle than others. Like other Navy yards, the Boston Navy Yard made a great deal of use of asbestos in building ships, especially after they turned to steel and metal for hulls and other parts. Asbestos, one of the best natural insulators and fireproofing materials in existence, also hides a deadly secret. The mineral, when crushed, powdered, broken or otherwise damaged, sheds miniscule fibers into the air. For more information about this toxic substance, and the risks shipyard workers were exposed to, please see Asbestos and Shipyards.

Asbestos fibers are the only known cause of a malignant cancer, mesothelioma. The cancer is rare, but is only found in those who worked with and around asbestos. Seaman and shipyard workers are among the occupational groups most affected. Please see Mesothelioma Overview for more information about this type of cancer.

If you worked at the Boston Navy Yard, you may have been exposed to asbestos and have an increased risk of developing mesothelioma or another type of cancer. If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma and worked at the Boston Navy Yard, contact a lawyer to find out if you have a right to compensation for your illness and loss. For more information, please read Mesothelioma Lawyers and Your Rights.

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