United States Coast Guard Yard
U.S. Coast Guard Yard Curtis Bay | |
Nearest city | Baltimore, Maryland |
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Coordinates | 39°11′59″N 76°34′2″W / 39.19972°N 76.56722°W |
NRHP reference No. | 83002924[1] |
Added to NRHP | August 05, 1983 |
The United States Coast Guard Yard or just Coast Guard Yard is a
History
1899–1909
Since 1899, the United States Coast Guard Yard has built, repaired and renovated ships for the U.S. Coast Guard. It is the service's sole shipbuilding and major repair facility. The Coast Guard Yard was established on the shores of Arundel Cove off of
1909–1919
The depot's facilities were consistently improved during the 1910s. New construction included a boiler and pump house, a foundry, boat, sheetmetal, electrical, paint, upholstery and blacksmith shops, new mess halls, barracks, garages, recreation building and storage structures. In 1915, when the Revenue Cutter Service and
1919–1929
During the 1920s, production of boats, canvas work and numerous other articles for the needs of the service were stepped up. Extensive overhauls and repairs were performed on the then-modern vessels Yamacraw, Seneca, Seminole and many 100', 125' patrol boats and tugs. The 500 workers of the depot included civilian employees along with enlisted men. In 1928, there were 245 wage board and 2 classified employees on the civilian payrolls while the military complement was 250. The work load was flexible, increasing considerably in the summer months and decreasing in the winter months.[3]
1929–1939
By the 1930s, many of the original buildings and equipment at the depot had become outdated. New boat, gas engine and machine shops were built and a 40-ton marine railway was installed. With the transfer of the
1939–1949
With the onset of World War II, the depot underwent extensive expansion. Improvements included a 3000-ton floating drydock, two shipways and a 320' x 60' concrete pier with tower crane. The depot, now comparable in size and functions to a medium-size navy shipyard, was officially designated the U.S. Coast Guard Yard. Work involved repair of vessels including submarines, buoy manufacturing, production of canvas work for the Coast Guard and building over 300 small wooden boats annually. Additional work included the construction of the largest cutters ever built at the yard – the 255' cutters Mendota and Pontchartrain. The yard employed 3100 civilian workers during World War II. Besides the assigned military complement, the Coast Guard's wartime training station or boot camp added to the number of personnel at the yard.[3]
1949–1959
As the yard reduced its work force to fit the service's post war needs, vessel overhaul, gun repair work, buoy construction and miscellaneous manufacturing made up much of the yard's work load. The 1950s saw the construction of three hundred 40' steel lifesaving patrol boats, the Coast Guard lightships San Francisco and Ambrose and small craft like the 36'8" motor lifeboats. In February, 1953, the first of the 95' steel patrol boats was launched at the yard. In total, fifty-eight 95-footers were built for the Coast Guard and the Navy throughout the 1950s and early-1960s. The yard continued to overhaul aging Coast Guard and Navy ships. Such cutters were Chilula, Avoyel, Dexter, and Commanche. In March, 1958, the Coast Guard Cutter Azalea, a 100' buoy tender, was launched at the yard.[3]
1959–1969
The first of 53 cutters built at the yard under the
1969–1979
The 1970s engaged the yard in a flurry of activity. The trades continued the manufacturing of the Coast Guard's lighted buoys, a program which began at the yard during the Second World War. Constructed in an assembly-line mode, lighted reflector buoys – large, steel buoys used for around-the-clock aids-to-navigation and lighted ice buoys used for heavy ice conditions were manufactured at the yard. Begun in 1975, the yard became the sole source for overhaul of the Coast Guard's 5" 38 caliber gun mount. The 5" gun mounts were used on the service's 378' cutters. In 1971, the yard completed construction of a prototype 41' utility boat (UTB) which had an aluminum hull and fiberglass superstructure. The yard-built boat was adopted and from 1973 through the early-1980s, the yard constructed 207 41' UTB's. The craft was well known to recreational and commercial boaters throughout the United States and was used primarily for search and rescue. The yard had a proven record for the design of experimental maritime projects. The construction of the prototype Stable Semi-Submerged Platform, or SSP, was the highlight of the 1970s. The SSP Kailmalino used the SWATH concept – Small Waterplane Area Twin Hull. The craft operated successfully for many years in the Hawaiian Islands. In 1974, the yard laid the keel for a 160' single unit construction tender, the CGC Pamlico. Throughout the remainder of the decade, 3 more 160' construction tenders were built at the Yard: the CGC Hudson, CGC Kennebec, and CGC Saginaw. From the late 1970s into the early 1980s, the yard renovated sixteen 95' patrol boats. Built at the yard in the 1950s, the cutters were in need of modernization or repair.[3]
1979–1989
Entering the 1980s, the yard constructed a prototype oil skimmer used to clean up oil spills. The Zero Relative Velocity Skimmer (ZRV) represented the best available technology in the Coast Guard's field of fast current pollution control research. The first of the new 270' medium endurance cutters, the
In 1983, the U.S. Coast Guard Yard at Curtis Bay was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[1]
1990–Present
After completing an extensive, four-year repair project on the
References
This article incorporates
- ^ a b "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. March 13, 2009.
- ^ United States Coast Guard. Coast Guard Yard website. Accessed February 22, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l United States Coast Guard. Coast Guard Shipyard History Page. Accessed November 8, 2006.
- ^ Susanne Moore (November 1981). "National Register of Historic Places Registration: United States Coast Guard Yard" (PDF). Maryland Historical Trust. Retrieved January 1, 2016.
- ISBN 0-7509-4307-6.
External links
- Coast Guard Yard website
- United States Coast Guard Yard, Anne Arundel County, including photo from 1944, at Maryland Historical Trust
- U.S. Coast Guard Yard, Building Nos. 44–46, Curtis Bay, Anne Arundel, MD, also [1], [2], [3], [4], [5] and [6] at the Historic American Buildings Survey(HABS)