Public Shipyards

Since the nation's earliest days, the U.S. Navy has operated its own shipyards.  There were 13 in total, four of which are still active.   In addition, several naval stations had some shipbuilding capability.  The Navy terminated or cancelled almost all new ship construction contracts at the end of WWII and only a few new ships were built in the Naval Shipyards thereafter.  All new ship construction in the Naval Shipyards formally ended in 1972, after publication of a report demonstrating that ships built in Naval Shipyards cost, on average, about 30% more than ships built by private-sector shipbuilders.  In addition to the Naval Ship Yards, the Navy sometimes built smaller vessels at its overseas bases and there is a table below for them.  Also, the U.S. Coast Guard maintains its own yard in Baltimore MD.  Note that, during the Civil War, there were numerous additional shipyard facilities operated by both sides: I will get to them eventually.