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Norfolk Naval Shipyard - History During the American Revolutionary War

The Norfolk Naval Shipyard is the largest and oldest continuously-operated shipyard on the East Coast. It was originally founded in 1767 by Andrew Sprowle, a Virginia businessman. Sprowle, a Scotland native, arrived in the Colonies in the 1750s, and by 1752, he had joined merchant guilds and purchased two waterfront lots on the Elizabeth River. A few years later, he purchased a handful of lots along the other shore of the river, and it was there that he established the shipyard he first conceived while working in the Portsmouth shipyards in England.

Sprowle named his shipyard Gosport. It was, according to records, situated on the south branch of the Elizabeth River and separated from the town of Portsmouth by a small creek. It extended along the banks of the creek and the river for about half a mile at a point where the river was deep and well-sheltered from the winds, forming "on the whole, a most excellent harbour for ships of great burthen, either for careening, sheathing, repairing, or loading." In addition to the Gosport Shipyard, Sprowle also owned four warehouses, an accounting house, and a smith's shop, where fittings were made for the ships.

By 1775, the Gosport Shipyard was well established and Sprowle was one of the most successful businessmen and landowners in the colony. The Royal Navy referred to Gosport as the "most well-equipped shipyard in the colonies." When Royal Governor Lord Dunmore fled Williamsburg in the early days of the American Revolution, he anchored his sips at the Gosport Shipyard.

Ultimately, Sprowle's loyalty to the Crown was his undoing. In 1776, when Dunmore fled Gosport, Sprowle fled with him into exile, leaving behind the shipyard, which would ultimately become useful to the revolutionary troops. His lands and holdings were immediately confiscated by the newly formed Commonwealth of Virginia and pressed into service. From 1776 to 1782, the Gosport Shipyard was the largest and most important of the shipyards protecting the shoreline of Virginia and the other colonies.

The operation of the shipyard was briefly interrupted in 1779 when a British fleet commanded by Admiral Sir George Collier invaded and occupied Portsmouth under the command of General Matthews. Matthews burned the Gosport Shipyard despite the protests of Admiral Collier who had hoped to make use of the yard's facilities for the British troops. Collier wrote that the Gosport Shipyard was "the most considerable one in America, large and extremely convenient." The British burned, according to Collier's record, "five thousand loads of oak for shipbuilding, an infinite quantity of plank, masts and cordage, and numbers of beautiful ships of war on the stocks." The British evacuated the area soon after, and the Commonwealth began rebuilding.

With the end of the Revolutionary War, the Colonial Navy and the Virginia Navy were disbanded, and the Gosport Shipyard fell into disuse. However, the new United States had a growing merchant marine, and the combination of wealth and the lack of protection by a naval force attracted the attention of naval predators - pirates. In 1794, Congress passed "An Act to Provide a Naval Armament," which established a U.S. Navy and mandated the leasing of naval shipyards. Congress also commissioned the building of six frigates, each at a different shipyard in the new nation. Gosport Shipyard was commissioned to build the USS Chesapeake, a 36-gun model.

The federal government leased the Gosport Shipyard from the Commonwealth of Virginia in 1794, and commissioned several officers to oversee the construction of the Chesapeake. However, the keel for the ship was not actually laid until 1798. The USS Chesapeake was launched officially in 1799, and commissioned in May 1800, the first U.S. Naval ship to be built at Gosport since the end of the Revolutionary War.

In 1801, the federal government purchased the Gosport Shipyard from the Commonwealth of Virginia for the sum of $12,000 for approximately 16 acres. The deed was executed by Governor James Monroe. The shipyard quickly attained its former status as one of the best outfitted and "most convenient" in the Union.

Between the end of the Revolutionary War and the start of the War of 1812, the Gosport Shipyard was kept busy with a stream of commissions from both the government and private concerns, including:

• The building and fitting of the USS Chesapeake
• The fitting of a squadron under the command of Commodore Dale
• Ten Naval ships ordered and fitted out by a private concern
• A number of 74-gun boats commissioned by the Navy
• Several gunboats and ketches designed and fitted out in 1806
• Ten gunboats outfitted in 1808

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