Portsmouth Naval Shipyard

The first warship built in North America was the 54-gun frigate Falkland. Constructed for the Royal Navy, she was launched in 1690 on Fernald’s Island, between the Maine and New Hampshire shores at the mouth of the Piscataqua River. In the intervening years ships have continued to be built on Fernald’s Island for the Royal Navy, the Continental Navy, and the U. S. Navy. Being joined, in time, with adjacent islands, it is now the site of the compact Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. Today the ships built on the island bear little resemblance to the three-masted Falkland with her smoothbore cannon. Portsmouth is the nation’s leading government-owned submarine yard, and its latest ships are nuclear powered and armed with long-range missiles. But the past is never forgotten at Portsmouth, for interspersed with the new is the old. The shipyard commander’s quarters (above) which were built in the early 1700s, and the yard’s administrative offices (below), with their carved woodwork, high ceilings, and scale models of Ports­mouth-built ships are reminders of the yard’s long past.

PORTSMOUTH-BUILT SURFACE SHIPS

SS 165 SS 166 SS 167 SS 169 SS 170 SS 172 SS 173 SS 179 SS 180 SS 185 SS 186 SS 191 SS 192 SS 196 SS 197 SS 201 SS 202 SS 205 SS 209 SS 210 SS 228 SS 229 SS 230 SS 231 SS 232 SS 233 SS 234 SS 235 SS 275 SS 276 SS 277 SS 278 SS 279 SS 280 SS 285 SS 286 SS 287 SS 288 SS 289 SS 290 SS 291

Bonita (ex V-3) Argonaut (ex V-4) Narwhal (ex V-5) Dolphin (ex V-7) Cachalot (ex V-8) Porpoise Pike Plunger Pollack Snapper Stingray Sculpin

1925

1927

192?

1932

1932           1935 1935 1935 1935 1937

1937

1938

Squalus (Renamed Sailfish) ^

Searaven

Seawolf

Triton

Trout

Marlin

Grayling

Grenadier

Drum

Flying Fish

Finback

Haddock

Halibut

Herring

Kingfish

Shad

Runner

Sawfish

Scamp

Scorpion

Snook

Steelhead

Bala o

Billfish

Bowfin

Cabrilla

Capelin

Cisco

Crevalle

1939

1939

1940

1940

1941

1940           ,940

1941           1941 1941 1941

1941

1939           1942 ,942 ,942 1942 1942 1942 1942 1942 ,942 ,942 1942 1942 1942 1942 ,943

SS 402 SS 403 ^SS 404 ^$S 405 ^SS 406 ^SS 407 ^SS 408 SS 409 ^SS 410 SS 417 ^SS 418 SS 419 SS 420 SS 421 SS 422 SS 423 SS 424 SS 475 SS 476 SS 477 SS 478 SS 479 SS 480 SS 481 SS 482 SS 483

of Portsmouth’s most famous submarines was the USS Squalns (SS-192). In 1939, shortly ^ter completion, she was lost in a test dive. Salvaged and returned to service as the Sailfish, she ^ade an enviable record in World War II. Her conning tower is now a memorial in the yard.

Overhaul and repair of surface ships and submarines has always been a major role of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. The USS Sable- ^ fish (SS-303) and the USS Tench (SS-417) complete overhauls.

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At Portsmouth a submarine begins with plans—literally miles of blueprints. The "translation” from paper to steel begins in the mold loft of the shipfitter’s shop (below). There loftsmen transcribe the lines of the submarine onto full-size templates which in turn will be used to guide the cutting and shaping of steel plates. Scale models of submarine equipment are first tried in wooden mock-up form to insure that all components will fit into the crowded hull. At right, equipment is checked in a model where everything—including the puppet sailor "Little Joe”—is one-quarter actual size.

assembly then starts with structural steel, high-yield steel can withstand the pressure of water several hundred feet

—nuusiauu tut, jiitaauit ui waiti attciai iiuuuicu it-ci

p°"'n. At left, bars of steel are bent for use as submarine frames.

°rtsmouth also does this work for submarines under con­duction at other shipyards, government-owned and com­^mercial. Above, the end section of a submarine pressure hull is Prepared for welding. The skeleton of a tapered hull section c.an be seen in the background. A streamlined outer hull sec- ^t'°ⁿ for the deep-diving research submarine Dolphin (AGSS- 5 5) i_s seen below. Scheduled to be launched in March of -^“5, the Dolphin is the only non-nuclear Navy submarine ⁿ°^w under construction in U. S. shipyards.

molds, like the one at left, have been used in foundry work for centuries. ^e process is still very much in use today with the construction of nuclear- °Wered submarines. Artisans skilled in old and new trades abound among Ports- °uth’s 8,000 employees. To handle their rush-hour movement in and out of the w . > automobile traffic is stopped on the bridge over the Back Channel to the ^ **ne shore as the day shift quits (above). Workmen approaching Marine sentries °*d open lunch boxes for routine inspection. There are approximately 150 Navy ^rsonnel and 70 Marines assigned to the shipyard proper. Also on the island _t ^e *hree major tenant activities: the Naval Hospital, Naval Reserve Training Cen- ^r> and Naval Disciplinary Command.

The multitude of components for a nuclear-powered submarine is assembled at Portsmouth and integrated with the products of the yard’s skilled workmen. Careful testing follows: above, a pressure test is about to be conducted on the experimental torpedo tube which will be installed in the Dolphin; below, in a "clean room” of the elec­trical shop, bearings are balanced for silent operation. At right, workmen swarm over the Polaris submarine Nathanael Greene (SSBN-636) a month before her launching. Covered ways, developed from the barn-like wooden shiphouses of a century ago, permit work to be carried on through New England’s winter weather.

Almost ready for the Fleet, the Portsmouth-built Polaris submarine John Adams (SSBN-620) loads supplies and, with the aid of two yard tugs, departs on her first sea trials. The John Adams is far removed from the Falkland built almost three centuries earlier at Portsmouth. How­ever, the John Adams and still newer submarines now being built at Portsmouth emphasize the continuing im­portance of the Shipyard to the nation.