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Newport News Shipyard

Located on the southern coast of Virginia, the Newport News Shipyard has seen many changes throughout its years of operation, including its name. Originally the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry-Dock Company (NNS&DD, or simply NNS), the Newport News Shipyard is today known as the Northrop Grumman Newport News, currently the largest privately-owned shipyard in the United States.

The Newport News Shipyard is one of two shipyards that manufacture and service various classes of nuclear powered submarines and it is currently the only shipyard that can build Nimitz-class super-carriers. The Newport News Shipyard also owns the largest crane in the western hemisphere and the yard participates frequently in joint projects with the nearby Norfolk Naval Shipyard in Portsmouth, Virginia.

The history of Newport News Shipyard goes back to 1886, but its founder's history is even deeper. Collis P. Huntington was the individual who led the efforts to finish the Chesapeake and Ohio railroad from Richmond, Virginia to the Ohio River in the 1870s. While the C&O was built for general commerce, it was also used to transport bituminous coal. In the 1880s, the C&O was extended from Richmond down to the Virginia Peninsula to reach a coal pier on Hamptons Roads, which was near Newport News. The railroad and coal pier, however, was only a part of the dream that Huntington had for the small community of Newport News.

Huntington built a shipyard in 1886 and called it the Newport News Shipyard. It was designed to repair ships that serviced the transportation hub. In 1891, the Newport News Shipyard (then the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company) took up shipbuilding as well and delivered its first ship - a tugboat named Dorothy. Six years later, the Newport News Shipyard had built three U.S. Naval warships - the Nashville, Wilmington and Helena. The creed of the Newport News Shipyard was: "We shall build good ships here. At a profit - if we can. At a loss - if we must. But always good ships."

In 1906, the revolutionary British battleship HMS Dreadnought launched a world wide naval arms race that inspired America to produce ships with similar advanced characteristics. The Newport News Shipyard built six of the 22 dreadnoughts the US Navy owned between 1907 and 1923. The Newport News Shipyard built the Delaware, Texas, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Maryland and West Virginia dreadnoughts. All except the Delaware dreadnought were still in active service when World War II struck.

Theodore Roosevelt sent the 'Great White Fleet' on an around-the-world voyage in 1907. Seven of the 16 battleships in that fleet were built by the Newport News Shipyard. In 1914, the Newport News Shipyard built the SS Medina for the Mallory Steamship Company - as the MV Doulos, the Medina is now the world's oldest active ocean-faring passenger ship.

Soon, the Newport News Shipyard delivered 25 destroyers in just 2 years, between 1918 and 1920. Also after the First World War, the Newport News Shipyard began to manufacture aircraft carriers. The first, the aircraft carrier Ranger, was delivered to the US Navy in 1934. The Newport News Shipyard then built the aircraft carriers Yorktown and Enterprise, and in 1940, the United States Navy ordered seven more aircraft carriers and four cruisers.

The Newport News Shipyard also built ships as part of the governments Emergency Shipbuilding Program during World War II and filled many requests for "Liberty Ships" that were needed for the war efforts.

During this same era, the Newport News Shipyard founded the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, which was an emergency shipyard on the banks of the Cape Fear River. The first Liberty Ship was launched from the North Carolina Shipbuilding Company before the end of 1941, and the yard built 243 ships in all, including 186 Liberty Ships.

After the war, the Newport News Shipyard Company was awarded the E Pennant from the Navy for excellent ship construction and all of its additional efforts stage during the war.

After the Second World War, the Newport News Shipyard built the famous passenger ship the SS United States. The SS United States set a trans-Atlantic speed record that has not yet been broken.

The year 1954 saw the Newport News Shipyard, together with Westinghouse and the US Navy, build and develop a prototype nuclear reactor for a carrier propulsion system. Hence, the Newport News Shipyard launched the first nuclear powered submarine in 1959, called Shark, as well as a ballistic missile submarine, the Robert E. Lee. The Newport News Shipyard also designed the Enterprise in 1960.

In the 1970s, the Newport News Shipyard launched two of the largest-built tankers in the western hemisphere and also three liquefied natural gas carriers - the largest ever built in the US. Through the 80s, the Newport News Shipyard manufactured a variety of vessels for the US Navy, including the Nimitz class nuclear air craft carriers and the Los Angeles class nuclear attack submarines.

In 2001, Newport News Shipyard merged with Northrop Grumman and created a $4 billion shipyard that is now called Northrop Grumman Newport News. The Northrop Grumman Newport News shipyard is a major employer in the lower Virginian Peninsula, as well as portions of Hampton Roads, portions of the Middle Peninsula region, and some of the north eastern counties of North Carolina.

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