14 Public Shipyards

Since the nation's earliest days, the U.S. Navy has built and operated its own shipyards.  There were 12 in total, four of which are still active.  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 12 Naval Ship Yards, there is one Naval Station with a construction record; the U.S. Coast Guard maintains its own yard in Baltimore MD; and the Corps of Engineers has built some boats in its own facilities, although this last group requires more research.

The 14 public shipyards included here are:

• Boston NSY was closed in the early 1970s and turned over to the National Parks Service: the big dock in the South Boston annex is occasionally used by private-sector contractors.

• Charleston NSY was closed in the late 1990s and turned over to the City of Charleston and became an industrial park: part of it, including all the docks, is leased to Detyens Shipyards.

• Long Beach NSY was closed in the late 1990s and turned over to the city and Port of Long Beach: it is now a container terminal.

• Mare Island NSY was closed in the late 1990s and turned over to the National Parks Service.

• New York NSY was closed in the early 1970s and turned over to The City of New York and became an industrial park: part of it, including the big docks, was leased, for a short time, to Seatrain Shipbuilding, which failed: the dry-docks are still used by private-sector contractors.

• Norfolk NSY maintains ships of the Atlantic Fleet.

• Pearl Harbor NSY maintains ships of the Pacific Fleet.

• Philadelphia NSY was closed in the late 1990s and turned over to the City of Philadelphia and became an industrial park: part of it, including the two big docks, is leased to Aker Philadelphia Shipyard, while the smaller docks are leased to a private-sector contractor.

• Portsmouth NSY maintains nuclear submarines of the Atlantic Fleet.

• Puget Sound NSY decommissions nuclear-powered ships and submarines.

• San Francisco NSY was closed in the early 1970s and turned over to the City of San Francisco and has never been put to effective re-use.

• Washington NSY ceased to be an industrial facility in the 1060s and is now used for Navy Department offices.

• New Orleans Naval Station was never a Naval Ship Yard but built a few patrol craft.

• The Coast Guard Yard maintains Coast Guard cutters and craft of all types and sizes.