Courtesy Photo | A photo of a steam hammer at the Master Forge Shop in Norfolk Naval Shipyard's...... read more read more
Have you ever wondered why the shipyard shops are positioned like they are and what planning went into it? Or, do you enjoy viewing very early images of some of those individual "big box stores" that we still preform work in today at America’s Shipyard? In the coming months, we shall begin our journey looking back at some of our principal shops. Today, let’s explore the first constructed structure, Building 163.
Planning, everything begins with a vision and then a drawn plan. This shipyard’s southern expansion to convert the recently acquired 273 acres of the Schmole Tract becomes the footprint of our modern waterfront. With World War I heating up in Europe, Uncle Sam’s new steel navy was in desperate need for an additional building yard and Norfolk was ready to answer that call. The drawn plan entitled "Proposed Final Layout for Development" of December 28, 1917, Public Works Drawing #4707 places several new key structures (Machine Shop, Foundry, Power Plant, Steel Storage and Dry Dock 4) in their exact location of today along with the Structural Shop, Building 163.
With the first pile actually driven October 31, 1916, well before the final layout plan was formally adopted, shows the importance for the establishment a shop to fabricate and shape metal. Building 163 was also the first of any of the modern structures to rise as evidenced by the cropped image looking northeast taken August 30, 1917 with a rare image of Back Creek in the foreground.
At an original built length 696 feet in length by 300 feet wide, the structure was later expanded from the triple door area to the north by a couple of hundred feet once the decision not to construct Dry Dock 5 was made, which is a story unto itself for another day.
Upon the second floor of "A" Bay, there is a full building length with a 100-foot-wide layout and mold loft suitable to fabricate full size template paper and lightweight wooden mockups to guide the craftsmen on the first floor with cutting, rolling, forging and welding of various metal shapes. Although the mold loft is relatively quiet today in this age of computer drafting, it was extremely instrumental in the emergency collision repairs that were made to the aircraft carrier USS Coral Sea (CV 43) in 1985 and the destroyer USS Radford (DD 968) in 1999.
Any metal working shop needs a fully functional Forge Shop and we are no different. Specific equipment consisting of furnaces, presses and rollers may have changed over the years yet this steam powered forging hammer of the early 1930s era proclaims a sense of authority for the work performed here. Take note of the shop office sign beyond and focus upon the title, "Master", as it conveys a sense of pride and craftsmanship which extends to this day for the folks that carry on this ancient art.
Under the roof of the Structural Shop in the very early 1930s electric arc welding becomes the emerging technology of the day to build components and even ships of steel. The days of riveting had indeed passed away permanently as weld beads provide increased efficiencies of both time and service durability. While not shown here the entire keels of our several 1930s destroyers are fabricated inside of the shop before being taken to Dry Dock 2 for large scale construction. By example, the associate image of the sludge removal barge YSR1 was completely assembled by welding inside the shop upon a thick wooden board floor.
You might say, how did they get that barge out of the building? Well, if you look in the upper right of the image from May 5, 1931, you would see what was referred to as the "triple doors" yet when fully rolled up the two supporting mullions were removable to allow large metal assemblies to pass. outside on the railroad tracks. A couple of decades ago, in the early 2000s, this door assemble was replaced with the extremely large rollup door that we are familiar with today.
And as I have written about before, World War II changed everything at the old Norfolk Navy Yard and Building 163 was no different, it needed to be expanded. As the calendar turned into December 1938, there was no need to save space for the extended length supporting a twin horseshoe of the proposed Dry Dock 5 as it was to be replaced with a new Assembly Structure, Building 261. Now Building 163 had room to grow towards the north.
From the triple doors to the north all of the working bays were extended including the mold loft above and by December of 1940 the expanded building was fully functioning as the final image confirms. The coming storm that would later be known as World War II grew darker and darker, yet now Norfolk was positioned better to help in the fight that was to come. Building 163 remains a vital part of our Shipyard’s heritage now into the 21st century because - "history matters."
| Date Taken: | 06.02.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 06.02.2025 11:03 |
| Story ID: | 499403 |
| Location: | PORTSMOUTH, VIRGINIA, US |
| Web Views: | 20 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Our Yard History: The Structural Shop, Building 163, by Marcus Robbins, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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