Hampton Roads Naval Museum
First American Drydock![Location Pin](https://wejunket-comb.b-cdn.net/wp-content/themes/wejunket/assets/images/location_pin.png)
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Hampton Roads Naval Museum
12. First American Drydock![Location Pin](https://wejunket-comb.b-cdn.net/wp-content/themes/wejunket/assets/images/location_pin.png)
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This is a print of the 74-gun ship-of-the-line USS Delaware at Dry Dock Number 1 at Gosport Navy Yard. It illustrates the first dry docking in North America. The print is in the museum's Age of Sail gallery. Published by the firm Childs and Inman of Philadelphia, the artist sketched the original illustration on stone. At the bottom of the print reads a dedication: "To the Officers, Sailors, and Marines, this View of the Delaware 74, Secured in the Dry dock U.S. Navy Yard Gosport, Dedicated with Great Respect (Signed) Joseph Goldsborough Bruff." The illustration is a popular print that has been reproduced many times and in many different forms. Some of the prints, like the museum's copy, are in the original black and white, while some were published in full color. Bruff produced variations on this illustration. One, for example, shows the ship dramatically entering the drydock. Another shows the ship in the drydock, but with the crowd of Naval officers removed and Marines standing guard in their place. Bruff took great license with the first variation. In the print, he shows a large crowd of people witnessing the battleship entering the drydock. Unfortunately, few people actually witnessed the event due to the local newspapers both reporting that it would take place at 10 a.m., instead of the actual time of 8:45. The print illustrates one of the great milestones not only for Gosport and the U.S. Navy, but for the United States as a whole. As part of the post-War of 1812 naval expansion, Congress authorized a drydock for Gosport and one for the Boston Navy Yard in 1824. Both drydocks were finished in 1833. However, Gosport beat Boston by one week for the title "First dry-docking in North America," much to the embarrassment of the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) Levi Woodbury. The SECNAV had informed President Andrew Jackson, Vice President Martin Van Buren, and Governor of Massachusetts Levi Lincoln, Jr., that Boston was going to be first and that they should attend in person.
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- Puppet Tour of the Museum
- Hampton Roads
- Seaman's Jacket & ECD uniform
- Battle off the Virginia Capes
- Ville de Paris
- Capture of USS Chesapeake
- 18-Pounder Naval Cannon
- USS Chesapeake
- USS Constellation
- US Gunboat 135
- American Musket, 1812
- First American Drydock
- USS Delaware
- USS Norfolk
- Fore and Aft Hat
- USS Pennsylvania
- Intro to the Civil War
- The Anaconda Plan
- Life At Sea
- Confederate Defenses
- USS Monitor
- CSS Virginia
- Duel of the Ironclads
- USS Cumberland
- USS Congress
- USS Minnesota
- Capture of Roanoke Island
- G.W.P. Custis
- USS Roanoke
- USS New Ironsides
- Engine Room Clock
- Gangway Headboards
- USS Onondaga
- Fall of Fort Fisher
- CSS Richmond
- CSS Florida
- The Civil War Final
- Shipfitters' tools, 1800s
- Steel Navy
- USS Maine
- Spanish-American War
- The Great White Fleet
- Jamestown Exposition
- Naval Station Norfolk
- Birth of Naval Aviation
- USS Truxtun (DD-14)
- USS Subchaser 136
- Mines in WWI
- Propaganda Posters
- USS New York (BB-34)
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