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Brooklyn Navy Yard - History 1600-1800

The legendary Brooklyn Navy Yard, officially called the United States Navy Yard, was one of the first major shipyards serving the United States military. Originally Rennegachonk Indian Territory, the land on which the Brooklyn Navy Yard sits was purchased from the Dutch West India Trading Company by Walloon Jansen de Rapelje in 1637. Repelje was the father of Sarah Rapelje, considered by many to be the first European born in the Netherlander colony of the New World. Repelje, who would permanently settle at this location where his daughter was born, called these 335 acres of land Waal Boght, meaning "River Bend." The land was later known as Wallabout Bay.

In the years leading up to the Revolutionary War, the 335 acres of land and adjacent bay were used to construct merchant ships. These merchant ships were integral to the early economy of the colonies and played a large role in the disagreements and rebellions that led to the Revolutionary War against Britain. During the Revolutionary War, many attacking British fleets would moor in Wallabout Bay. Some of these British ships would serve as prisoner holds, and nearly 11,000 patriots would die while in captivity on the bay. In addition to patriots and soldiers, merchants and traders who disobeyed the British embargo were imprisoned and treated with cruelty upon these waters.

One of the most infamous of the ships used to imprison Americans during the Revolutionary War was the HMS Jersey, a British prison ship built during the earlier years of peace in England. During her years as a prison ship in Wallabout Bay, thousands of men were stuffed into the lower holds below deck, where they were often left for long periods of time without food, water, or fresh air to breath. In 1771, the masts of the Jersey were lowered, and she was converted into a hospital ship for ailing soldiers of the Revolutionary War. In 1783, when the British evacuated the harbor after surrendering to the Continental Army, the HMS Jersey was abandoned in Wallabout Bay. A burial vault was constructed near the Brooklyn Navy Yard, where those who died aboard the Jersey and other British prison ships were later laid to rest.

In 1781, John Jackson and his brother purchased a portion of the 335 acres of Repelje land, which had earlier become part of the estate of Cornelius Remsen. The entrepreneurial Jackson and his brothers used this valuable land to establish the region's original shipyard, comprising of a number of newly constructed docks on just over ten acres of land and water. Following this acquisition, in the years while the land was still privately owned, a number of naval ships and merchant vessels, such as the famed Canton merchant ship, were constructed at this shipyard that would later become known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

One of these ships, a 28-gun frigate called the USS Adams, was commissioned by John Jackson for service by the newly-established United States government. John Jack and his partner, William Sheffield, built the USS Adams at the Wallabout Bay site in 1797, and was officially launched two years later. The ship served in the West Indies during skirmishes with the French in the years leading to the 1800s. At least twice, the ship was delivered back to the harbor at New York, once for urgent repairs, and the second time for an overhaul, during which the ship was lengthened and converted into a sloop-of-war. The USS Adams was finally burnt during service in an effort to avoid French capture.

Having successfully commissioned one of Jackson's ships, the United States government approached Jackson in 1801 with an offer of $40,000 for the shipyard and surrounding parcel of land. He accepted the offer, and the Jackson land officially became property of the United States. In the coming years, the United States government would establish the United States Navy Yard on this land. This shipyard, better known by its popular title, the Brooklyn Navy Yard, remained the property of the United States government for many years, during which time it constructed dozens of naval vessels in support of the United States war efforts abroad.

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