Institution

Prior to the 19th century, Old Point Comfort utilized wood fires burned in the old colonial Fort George to guide ships into the harbor. At the turn of the century, this was deemed insufficient. The Old Point Comfort Lighthouse was completed in 1802 as a 58 foot tall octagonal tower. During the War of 1812, it was seized by British forces attacking Hampton. This prompted the later construction of Fort Monroe, which prevented it from falling into Confederate hands during the Civil War. It was one of the few lighthouses to not suffer any damage during the conflict. While the lighthouse has been altered cosmetically, its structure has stayed the same since 1802. It was automated in 1972, upon which ownership of the keeper's house was given to the US Army. It remains an active beacon to this day. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Old Point Comfort Lighthouse postcard ca. 1920

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The Old Point Comfort Lighthouse was built to replace the temporary navigational aids previously employed at Old Point Comfort and was completed in 1802. During the War of 1812, it was briefly seized by British forces, prompting the later construction of Fort Monroe nearby. During the Civil War, it remained in Federal possession. Today, it is owned jointly by the United States Coast Guard and Army. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

Old Point Comfort Lighthouse

Norfolk, Virginia is the historic, urban, financial, and cultural center of the Hampton Roads metropolitan area. Bordered to the west by the Elizabeth River and to the north by the Chesapeake Bay, Norfolk's history has always taken place along the water. Take a drive from Newport News to Virginia Beach. Along the way, you'll see notable sites, museums, and monuments representing naval history from colonial times to WWII. 
Be sure to click over to the driving directions as this tour covers a large area includes highways and bridges that are not open to pedestrians. 

The
U.S.S. Scorpion (SSN 589)&nbsp;was a nuclear submarine, and&nbsp;the sixth U.S. Navy vessel to bear the name.&nbsp;In May of 1968, it vanished into the Atlantic with 99 crew members, having previously&nbsp;departed the Navy base in Norfolk, VA on February 15 for a three-month
deployment. Due for a return to port on May 27, 1968, her disappearance&nbsp;quickly caused consternation among Navy officials and family members of the crew.The Scorpion’s
skipper Commander Francis A. Slattery's final transmission to&nbsp;headquarters took place&nbsp;on May 22, reporting the sub's impending&nbsp;return on Memorial Day, May 29 at 1pm. As customary, the Navy publicly&nbsp;announced the vessel's return to port 72 hours prior to its expected arrival.At 3:15pm on May 29, only hours after Scorpion was supposed to have arrived at her berth in Norfolk, the Navy officially reported the vessel as missing, and issued the orders that would spark the largest U.S. naval operation since the Cuban Missile Crisis six years earlier. &nbsp;Navy ships scoured the waters of the East Coast and the point of her last transmission in the Azores.The
Scorpion was declared “presumed lost” on June 5, 1968 by the Chief of Naval
operations, Admiral Thomas H. Moorer.&nbsp;The Navy released little information
on the&nbsp;disappearance, and conspiracy theories of Soviet involvement soon surfaced. &nbsp;But the search for the missing sub continued, even while a Navy administrative investigation looked for clues back in the United States. &nbsp;In October came shattering news. &nbsp;The&nbsp;Scorpion&nbsp;had been found. A search flotilla led by&nbsp;USNS Mizar, an oceanographic research vessel, had discovered the wreckage of the missing sub by photographing the ocean floor with a towed research sled. The broken hull of the&nbsp;Scorpion was found southwest of the Azores, in a search radius that had been triangulated using signals that scientists believed had originated when the submarine sank on May 22. &nbsp;The Navy announced the discovery on Oct. 30, 1968.Unfortunately the wreckage did not lead to answers. The investigative panel concluded that, “The certain cause of the loss of&nbsp;Scorpion&nbsp;cannot be ascertained by any evidence now available."1Despite advancements in technology in the intervening decades--and multiple petitions from family and friends of the deceased crew--the U.S. Navy has not attempted another survey of the wreck to determine the cause of Scorpion's sinking, which lies in international waters. The Navy does claim to monitor the radioactivity of the site, due to the presence of two nuclear torpedoes and a nuclear reactor on board the sunken vessel. Due to the suspicious, unsolved circumstances of the sinking (and the mysterious disappearance of three other submarines that year--one Israeli, one French, and one Russian), multiple theories have been put forth as to the causes of&nbsp;Scorpion's demise. Leading theories include: torpedo malfunction, trash disposal unit malfunction, and Soviet attack. The U.S. Navy has endorsed none of these hypotheses in its official reports.

This memorial in Newport News is dedicated to the 99 sailors who went down with the U.S.S. Scorpion (SSN-589), a nuclear submarine that went down 400 miles southwest of the Azores. The ship was declared lost on June 5, 1968 after failing to return home from a 3 month deployment. The memorial is in Huntington Park, adjacent to the Virginia War Museum, and is part of the "Still On Patrol" nationwide series of monuments dedicated to U.S. submarines and crews lost during World War II.

U.S.S. Scorpion SSN 589 Monument 

<blockquote>"Our late sea fight in Hampton Roads is one of the most remarkable and instructive events in the history of modern warfare. &nbsp;It establishes the utter uselessness of wooden ships."</blockquote> Wooden ships were, in fact, the primary instruments then blockading most ports of the southern Confederate States of America per President Abraham Lincoln's order given April 19, 1861. &nbsp;The goal was to prevent the Confederacy from trading with foreign nations, thereby stifling the flow of war materials and inhibit the seceding states' ability to carry on their rebellion. Prior to March 8, 1862, the Union blockade around Norfolk had been successful at denying freedom of movement to Confederate ships in the area. &nbsp;But that morning, the complexion of naval warfare changed forever when the CSS Virginia steamed into Hampton Roads to engage the Union squadron stationed there. Virginia was an ironclad, made of sloped plates of iron over a wooden hull. She had started life as the USS Merrimac (often misspelled "Merrimack"), but had been captured and converted by Confederate engineers. &nbsp;Her new iron hull rendered cannon shot&nbsp;almost completely ineffective against it. &nbsp; That fateful day in 1862, the newly-minted&nbsp;Virginia engaged three U.S. navy ships. &nbsp;She rammed the USS Cumberland, which sank in minutes with over a hundred sailors on board. The captain of the USS Congress&nbsp;then ordered his ship to run aground, lest it be similarly destroyed. &nbsp; Virginia moved into easy cannon range and the two exchanged shot for almost an hour, with Congress sustaining heavy damage and Virginia sustaining almost none. At this point, the Virginia fired "hot shot"--cannon rounds heated to a red-hot glow--into the Congress, which caused the wooden ship to catch fire and later explode when the flames reached its magazine. &nbsp;Over a hundred more sailors died that day. &nbsp;The United States Navy&nbsp;would not suffer a bloodier day until Pearl&nbsp;Harbor almost 80 years later.&nbsp; As night began, the Confederate ships turned their attention to the Minnesota, which was grounded in shallow waters. The Virginia's draft was too deep to allow it to engage the Minnesota, and the increasing darkness prevented the other vessels from aiming properly with their weapons. The Confederate fleet retreated and made temporary repairs to the slight damage the Virginia had sustained. The next day, the Virginia returned. But March 9 would be different. &nbsp;The USS Monitor&nbsp;had moved to the area overnight, with the express purpose of preventing the&nbsp;Minnesota's destruction and stymieing the&nbsp;Virginia's crusade to break the Norfolk blockade. The Virginia cautiously approached the Monitor, not sure at first what the strange vessel was. The Monitor was constructed very differently from ships of the day, with its main deck barely a foot above sea level. Stranger still, atop the deck sat a turret (an innovation in naval engineering at the time), which rotated and housed two 11-pound guns, much larger than any the Virginia carried. The two vessels exchanged fire for hours, neither able to penetrate the other's defenses. The internal temperature of both vessels increased due to repeated impacts on the iron plates, but the battle finally ended temporarily when a shot hit the Monitor's pilot cabin, temporarily incapacitating the helmsman.&nbsp; The Monitor retreated to replace its helmsman, and the Virginia believed that it had won the battle. The Minnesota was still aground, but the Virginia was defeated again by her deep draft and could not reach the ship in the falling tides.&nbsp;Virginia was heavily damaged, so it began to steam back to port. Upon returning to its post at the Minnesota, the captain of the Monitor saw his foe retreating and decided that they had won the battle. Both sides claimed victory. Though the battle was tactically indecisive, the Union&nbsp;blockade remained and continued to choke Southern trade for the duration of the war. &nbsp;For another three years, the Confederate navy would never again come so close to breaking the blockade or making a decisive impact on the war's outcome. On a global scale, the world was staggered by the military success of ironclad ships, and would soon begin building their own. &nbsp;In less than a decade, ironclad sailing vessels would become the military standard, soon to be followed by dreadnoughts and the arms race that sparked World War I.

The Battle of Hampton Roads was a historic, if indecisive, leap forward in naval technology. That day in the American Civil War, the shores of Virginia witnessed the world's first clash between two metal warships, known as ironclads--the USS Monitor and the CSS Merrimack (also called the CSS Virginia)--as they battled it out in the waters of Hampton Roads near Norfolk. The Merrimack's goal was to shatter the cordon of Union ships blockading the key Confederate cities of Norfolk and Richmond. Had it not been for the timely arrival of the brand-new USS Monitor, Confederate plans would likely have succeeded.  From Monitor-Merrimac Overlook Park, visitors can survey the historic battlefield.  The park is near the Mariners' Museum, home of the USS Monitor Center.

Battle of Hampton Roads (Monitor-Merrimack Overlook)

Originally named Castle Calhoun, construction of Fort Wool started in 1818 but was not completed until 1866. The fort was originally designed to be a three tier castle-like fortress, but even more uniquely the fort was to be a man-made island.&nbsp;Large rocks were specially cut and placed to build an island at the entrance to Hampton Roads directly across from Fort Monroe, which was also being constructed at the same time. The two forts where designed to provide overlapping fields of cannon-fire,&nbsp;assuring protection from enemy attack and preventing incursions like the&nbsp;British capture of Washington D.C. in 1814. During construction of the second tier, it was discovered that the artificial island was settling and the new fort was sinking with it; the decision was made to cancel&nbsp;work on the third tier. &nbsp;With only the first tier and part of the second completed,&nbsp;a mere 10 of the planned 232 cannon were ever mounted.&nbsp;(1)Despite its limitations as a defensive installation Fort Calhoun became a favorite retreat of President Andrew Jackson after the death of his wife. &nbsp;Here he spent his days, "inhaling the salubrious ocean breeze, and daily taking the salt water bath." &nbsp;Other presidents followed suit, including President&nbsp;John Tyler. In the 1830s Robert E. Lee, then a young 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Army&nbsp;who was working on Fort Monroe, was sent to Castle Calhoun to assess the situation. Lee found that the base of the island was spreading outward and ordered the existing base to be enlarged, temporarily halting further sinking of the fort.&nbsp;During the American Civil War, Union forces were able to retain control over the fort despite the nearby presence of Confederate troops and the secession of Virginia from the Union. &nbsp;Soon an&nbsp;experimental cannon, “The Sawyer Gun,” was installed giving the Union garrison the ability to fire on Confederate batteries at Sewells Point in Norfolk, three miles away--an unusually long range for cannon of the era. The Sawyer also fired on the CSS Virginia in the Battle of the Ironclads at Hampton Roads. &nbsp;Less than three months later in May 1862, President Lincoln visited and personally ordered a shelling of Sewells Point before commencing plans to recapture Norfolk and Portsmouth.Fort Calhoun was shortly thereafter renamed Fort Wool in honor of Maj. Gen John Ellis Wool, who is credited with Norfolk's capture. The original namesake, John C. Calhoun--once President Monroe's Secretary of War--had revealed himself to be a Confederate sympathizer and ardent secessionist.&nbsp; After the war, Fort Wool remained relatively unfinished and unchanged until 1902 when it was found inadequate to withstand modern firepower. The fort was almost completely torn down and rebuilt to new standards. The facility&nbsp;was rearmed with modern artillery at this time, as the recent Spanish-American War had fueled fears of more conflict with European powers.&nbsp;World War I necessitated more armament updates and submarine nets were installed between Fort Wool and Fort Monroe. World&nbsp;War II brought searchlights and radar towers. But the fort never again saw action, and the Army decommissioned the site in 1967, turning ownership over to the state of Virginia.Fort Wool is now operated by the City of Hampton and offers tours during the summer months. The fort is an island, however, and can only be reached by boat. Private boats are welcome to dock at the fort during its normal operating hours. The privately operated Miss Hampton II Harbor Cruises stops at Fort Wool for a 30-minute guided tour.

During the War of 1812, British naval and land forces frequently operated with impunity in Chesapeake Bay, even threatening Baltimore and eventually burning Washington D.C.  This revealed a desperate need for more coastal defenses to protect major harbors and cities from foreign military threats.  After the war ended, the need for a coastal defense system was answered with the construction of forts all along the eastern coast of the United States.  Fort Wool is one of these forts and still stands “protecting” the bay.

Fort Wool (Castle Calhoun)

<blockquote>"Aerial navigation proved today that it is a factor which must be dealt with in the naval tactics of the world’s future."</blockquote> Such was the prognosis of the Indianapolis Star newspaper after witnessing Eugene Ely's historic flight in November 1910. The U.S. Army had already embraced the new military potential of the airplane when in 1909&nbsp;it purchased the Wright Military Flyer--the world's first military airplane--but applications for other branches of the armed forces&nbsp;were not yet clear. &nbsp; Nevertheless, the U.S. Navy was interested, and began experimenting with the possibility of naval aviation at bases&nbsp;in Maryland and California. A Navy Officer, Captain Washington Irving Chambers, was tasked "to observe everything that will be of use in the study of aviation and its influence upon the problems of naval warfare.” In October 1910, he encountered Glenn Curtiss and Eugene Ely at a meeting in New York. Glenn Curtiss was an ambitious entrepreneur&nbsp;who had made his name inventing motorcycles in the early 1900s. Eventually contributing to the first successful American dirigible in 1904, he joined famed inventor Alexander Graham Bell and several others as part of the Aerial Experiment Association. In 1908, the group had the distinction of making the first "officially-recognized, pre-announced and publicly-observed flight in America." Despite the fame of the Wright Brothers and the Kitty Hawk, the brothers' flight had been private and relatively undocumented, causing much public suspicion. Glenn Curtiss made his record-breaking flight at the controls of his plane,&nbsp;the "June Bug," in full public view, and it was a resounding success. In 1910 Curtiss met the similarly ambitious Eugene Ely, who had also gotten his start working with motorcycles. Earlier that year Ely had the opportunity to fly a Curtiss biplane belonging to his employer--and crashed it. But he was hooked on flying. He purchased the wreck from his employer, repaired it in a matter of months, and earned his pilot's license in October 1910. He and Curtiss collaborated on the test they devised with Captain Irving to fly from the deck of a Navy ship the following month. The test was devised to prove that an aircraft could take off from the deck of a warship. For indeed&nbsp;some Naval leaders believed that ships could not only transport aircraft, but serve as mobile airbases, carrying and launching planes anywhere in the world. A wooden 83-foot ramp was constructed aboard the&nbsp;USS Birmingham, a light cruiser. While Ely did not expect to hit the water, floats were installed under the wings of his plane--just in case. Ely's plane was hoisted on board the Birmingham on Nov. 14, 1910. Despite having only a few months of flight time under his belt, Ely proceeded with the experiment seemingly without hesitation. &nbsp; The plane barely made its required speed at takeoff. In fact, the propeller and wheels skidded off the surface of the water. Saltwater sprayed onto Ely's goggles, obscuring his vision. &nbsp;His primary objective achieved--proving that a plane could take off from the deck of a ship--Ely decided to land at the earliest opportunity rather than making for the intended airfield at Norfolk. &nbsp;He touched down at Willoughby Spit, near Fort Monroe. A grand success, the test inspired Secretary of the Navy George Meyer to call for further experimentation with shipborne aircraft. &nbsp;Two months later, Ely would prove that landing on a ship was also possible--this time in San Diego, when he landed his plane on a special wooden deck built on the&nbsp;USS Pennsylvania. Unfortunately, an aviation accident later that year would take his life. These experiments paved the way for the later development of the aircraft carrier, a revolution in the projection of naval superiority and the global balance of power. Aircraft carriers would change the complexion of warfare in the Pacific during World War II, proving that the old model of turret-armed battleships was obsolete, and that aircraft carriers were queens of the ocean battlefields. Eugene Ely's fleet pioneered the concepts that led to current U.S. Naval doctrine and remains relevant to this day.

This historic marker commemorates the first time an airplane took off from a naval vessel. Just across the harbor from this location, on November 14th, 1910, civilian pilot Eugene Ely successfully launched a Curtiss biplane from a specially-constructed ramp aboard the USS Birmingham.   

Birthplace of Naval Aviation 

Plans commenced in 1938 to build a new type of "fast battleship" for the U.S. Navy, and in February 1943, in the midst of World War II, the USS Iowa was commissioned and sent to join the U.S. Atlantic Fleet. Later that year, one of her first assignments was transporting President Franklin D. Roosevelt to the Tehran Conference, where he met with Winston Churchill and Josef Stalin. The ship did not see combat in the Atlantic, and shortly after returning President Roosevelt to the United States, she departed in January 1944 to join the Pacific Fleet in action against the Japanese. &nbsp;The ship and her crew served with distinction until the end of the war, after which she served in training exercises until deactivation in 1949. &nbsp;She was reactivated for service in the Korean War, then mothballed in Philadelphia in 1958. She was recommissioned, refitted and modernized in 1982-1984 as part of President Ronald Reagan's "600-ship navy" response to heightened Cold War tensions with Soviet Russia, and served around the world, including Central America and the Persian Gulf. &nbsp; But on April 19, 1989, during a routine gunnery exercise, an explosion ripped through the Number Two gun turret, instantly killing 47 crewman. &nbsp;The turret's powder magazine was quickly flooded to prevent a secondary explosion, an action which may have saved the ship. &nbsp;Eric Chase, a sailor aboard the&nbsp;Iowa who participated in the cleanup of the crippled turret immediately after the explosion, recalled: <blockquote>"We knew there wasn't going to be anybody left alive....I knew that there was going to be devastation...everything is Black...and it smells...I am just in this gigantic carnage dump."2</blockquote> The incident remains one of the deadliest peacetime occurrences in the history of the U.S. Navy. &nbsp;A Navy investigation blamed one of the sailors who was killed, Clayton Hartwig, for having set off the explosion intentionally, and presented a case claiming Hartwig was suffering from suicidal depression after being spurned by a homosexual lover. &nbsp; Growing public criticism, however, forced Congress to open an independent investigation which found that the likely cause of the explosion was not sabotage, but improper gunpowder storage (which had been manufactured in the 1930s), overly rushed efforts to refit&nbsp;Iowa for service during her reactivation, and negligence on the part of her commander, Captain Fred Moosally. The Iowa&nbsp;was decommissioned for the last time in 1990. &nbsp;In 1991, two years after the incident, the Navy issued a formal apology to the family and memory of Clayton Hartwig for having attempted to blame the incident on him. &nbsp;The marker here, dedicated by the State of Virginia, memorializes the 47 sailors who lost their lives in the 1989 explosion. Today, the&nbsp;USS Iowa resides in San Pedro harbor, California, and serves as a floating museum dedicated to the vessel's service.

Commissoned in 1943, USS Iowa was one of the most powerful battleships in the world at her launching, and went on to see combat during World War 2 and the Korean War. The ship was modified in October 1943, adding the only bathtub ever to be installed on an American battleship, specifically for Franklin D. Roosevelt's trans-Atlantic voyage to meet with Allied leaders in Tehran. She was mothballed in 1958, but recommissioned in 1984, serving in many operations during the Cold War. On April 19, 1989 Turret Two exploded, killing 47 crewmen. This point and marker was dedicated to them on April 19, 1990.

USS Iowa BB-61 Marker

THE BATTLE On the night of April 20, 1861--just a few days after Confederate forces fired on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina in the first act of aggression that sparked the Civil War--the Commander of the Gosport Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia set fire to the facility and evacuated his personnel.Nine ships of the U.S. Navy were burned, but most of the facility survived serious damage. Over a thousand cannon fell into Confederate hands, along with other materials of war. But President Lincoln quickly reinforced the nearby Federal stronghold at Fort Monroe, which remained in Union hands for the duration of the war. This gave a base of operations to the Union gunboats of the blockading squadron, tasked with preventing Confederate shipping from moving freely in the area.These gunboats soon noticed Confederate activity at Sewell's Point near Hampton Roads, where the blockading squadron often patrolled. Brigadier General Walter Gwynn, Confederate commander in the region, had ordered a coastal battery to be constructed at Sewell's Point, opposite the Union-held Fort Monroe.One of these gunboats, the&nbsp;USS Monticello, commanded by Captain Henry Eagle, approached and discerned the purpose of the earthworks he saw being constructed there. The&nbsp;Monticello opened fire on the battery, which held two 32-pound cannon and two rifled guns and their crews. Eagle's vessel was joined shortly&nbsp;by&nbsp;the&nbsp;USS Thomas Freeborn, an armed tug. &nbsp;The Confederates soon recovered from their surprise and returned fire. &nbsp;An inconclusive artillery duel followed. Captain Peyton Colquitt, commanding the Confederate battery, lacked a Confederate or Virginia flag and instead hoisted the flag of his home state of Georgia in a gesture of defiance. &nbsp;Darkness soon forced the various combatants to abandon hostilities. The two Union vessels returned the next day to renew the fight. Colquitt's men had worked through the night to strengthen the breastworks, so&nbsp;Monticello&nbsp;and&nbsp;Thomas Freeborn were unable to inflict any further damage. Several well-aimed shots eventually took a toll on&nbsp;Monticello, and Captain Eagle was forced to retire from the fight before further damage was suffered. Records are scarce, but a history of Norfolk County written in 1902 claims that the only casualty was a Confederate private struck by shell fragments. LATER IN THE WAR Though the Battle of Sewell's Point was over, her role in the war was not yet finished. The Confederate battery there continued to trade shots with Union gunboats over the next year, and was even shelled by direct order of President Lincoln by an experimental cannon Union troops installed at nearby Fort Wool. Finally, when Confederate forces set fire to Norfolk Navy Yard and retreated in June 1862, the battery at Sewell's Point was untenable. It was abandoned, and when President Lincoln (who was in personal military command of the area at the time) discovered on June 9, 1862 that&nbsp;it was no longer manned, he ordered troops to advance on Norfolk. TODAY&nbsp;The site of the battery at Sewell's Point is currently inaccessible, as the grounds are part of the present-day Norfolk Navy base. &nbsp;

The Battle of Sewell's Point was a small duel between Union warships and Confederate artillery, fought during the American Civil War in May, 1861. It was the second battle of the American Civil War and the first on Virginia soil in that conflict, fought shortly after the bombardment of Fort Sumter. The battle was inconclusive, but Union warships withdrew and Confederates claimed victory.

Battle of Sewell's Point

PROLOGUE In early 1775, as the tensions were mounting in New England that would lead to shots being fired in Massachusetts, strain was also growing between Patriot factions in VIrginia and representatives of the British Crown. Indeed, Virginia militias had begun recruiting troops in March 1775, a mere month before the battles of Lexington and Concord brought open revolution to the colonies. Fearing that Patriot forces would seize gunpowder stores, the Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, commanded his troops to remove powder from an armory in Williamsburg and place it on board a British ship, provoking the local Patriot militias to outright defiance--though violence did not yet break out. &nbsp; The town of Norfolk itself, a prosperous port, had strong Loyalist sympathies, but Dunmore proceeded cautiously until he received reinforcements from General Gage in Boston. &nbsp;These new troops were directed to begin raiding the countryside around Norfolk in October 1775, looking for Patriot weapons and supplies. The outraged rebels responded by capturing a British ship that had&nbsp;run aground in Hampton, Virginia, and killing several sailors in the ensuing gunfight. DUNMORE'S PROCLAMATION In response to the actions of these freshly-emboldened Patriots, Dunmore issued a proclamation on November 7, 1775: <blockquote>"I do, in Virtue of the Power and Authority to ME given, by his&nbsp;Majesty, determine to execute Martial Law, and cause the same to be executed throughout this Colony"</blockquote>Dunmore's declaration of martial law also went on to promise freedom to "indentured Servants, Negroes, or others, (appertaining to Rebels,)" who joined British military service. This measure, intended to cow the colonial populace and deprive them of their&nbsp;means of insurrection, backfired. Virginia's economy&nbsp;was largely dependent on slave labor, and many colonists who had remained neutral were incensed by what they perceived as an attempt by Dunmore to incite a slave rebellion. Virginians responded by proclaiming in kind: <blockquote>"by an act of the General Assembly now in force in this colony, it is enacted, that all negro or other slaves, conspiring to rebel or make insurrection, shall suffer death, and be excluded all benefit of clergy."</blockquote>Despite the anger of the general populace, Dunmore successfully recruited among Virginia Loyalists. Between his new proclamation and local Tories, he formed the Queen's Own Loyal Virginia Regiment and Lord Dunmore's Ethiopian Regiment (comprised of roughly 200 former slaves and commanded by white officers). By November 30, he felt his forces were strong enough to "reduce this colony to a proper sense of their duty." THE BATTLE OF GREAT BRIDGE By early December 1775, substantial Patriot forces under Colonel William Woodford were in a stand-off with Dunmore's troops at Great Bridge, outside Norfolk. Impatient to sweep them away, and concerned about new reports that the Patriots had received some artillery, Dunmore ordered an attack on Woodford's fortified encampment. Dunmore had been misinformed as to the Patriots' strength, and believed their numbers to be only half of the 900 troops Woodford held in a strong position on the opposite bank. A frontal attack by British Grenadiers across the bridge cost them dearly--perhaps as many as 100 dead, with only one Patriot wounded. Furious, Dunmore retreated his forces back to Norfolk and then evacuated his troops from the city, placing them on board the ships of a British fleet at anchor in the harbor. THE BURNING OF NORFOLK On December 14, only a few days after Dunmore had withdrawn to his ships, Patriot troops moved into the city. Woodford's men had received reinforcements from North Carolina and now the combined force of 1,200 men was under the command of Colonel Robert Howe. In examining the town, Howe and Woodford recommended to Congress that Norfolk be destroyed, as there was little hope for even a large Patriot force to successfully defend against a mobile British contingent capable of flanking the city&nbsp;by sea. Luckily, Dunmore would soon give them the excuse they needed to carry out Norfolk's destruction. Dunmore's fleet was joined shortly by the&nbsp;HMS Liverpool, bearing fresh supplies and munitions. &nbsp;He positioned his four warships in a threatening line along the Norfolk waterfront, broadsides turned toward the city. &nbsp;Citizens began to evacuate--as most of the Loyalist population had fled to the ships with Dunmore, there was little to prevent the Governor from firing on the city. &nbsp;In the meantime, Patriot sharpshooters hidden around Norfolk boldly picked off British officers and sailors who came above decks on the crowded ships, driving the frustration of the British commanders to new heights. On Christmas Eve, 1775, an ultimatum was delivered to the Patriots entrenched in Norfolk: allow British forces to land and&nbsp;purchase food and supplies, or the goods would be taken by force. The resources of the British fleet were being seriously overstrained by the many civilians who had fled on board and Dunmore could hold out little longer. Colonel Howe refused. FInally on New Year's Day, 1776, the British ships opened fire. &nbsp;From 3:15pm until 2am the following morning, over a hundred British cannon rained destruction on the city of Norfolk. &nbsp;Under cover of shot and shell, landing parties of marines launched from the British ships and attempted to recover supplies amid the bedlam. &nbsp;Battles broke out among the warehouses along the wharves, and British troops set fire to buildings. Though most of the British assaults were repulsed by Howe's men, the destruction was not complete. Patriot troops, given license by the chaos, looted and burned the city as well, often feeling justified knowing that many of the houses had belonged to Loyalists. Soon much of the settlement was ablaze, of which Howe wrote, "the whole town will I doubt not be consum’d in a day or two.” His attacks repulsed, Dunmore pulled his ships out of the harbor and retreated, leaving Virginia entirely by August of the following year. &nbsp;Howe and Woodford stayed on in Norfolk until February, systematically destroying the remnants of the town until only&nbsp;a burnt-out skeleton remained. &nbsp;His letters to Congress omitted the role of Patriot forces in the town's destruction, allowing public outrage to foment about its wanton destruction at the hands&nbsp;of the cruel British. &nbsp;By the time a true picture emerged to the colonists in 1777, the war was in full swing.

St, Paul's Church was built in 1739 and is the only structure in Norfolk remaining that predates the destruction of the city during the American Revolution. During the British bombardment on New Year's Day in 1776, a cannonball fired by the British Fleet struck the church and is still  lodged in the southeastern wall. After British attacks were repulsed, Patriot forces destroyed the rest of the city rather than allow it to fall in enemy hands.

St. Paul's Episcopal Church and the Burning of Norfolk

WORLD WAR II Like the&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=24033">USS Iowa</a><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=24033"></a>, for which this unique class of "fast battleships" is named, construction of the&nbsp;USS Wisconsin was approved before the United States' entry into World War II. The ship was built in Philadelphia Naval Yard, and launched from there on December 7, 1943, two years to the day after the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. She would not be commissioned until April 16, 1944, and following sea trials and her shakedown cruise, she did not reach the Allied Pacific Fleet until October 1944. While serving with the US 3rd Fleet, she served to protect aircraft carriers and bombard shore targets in the Philippines, French Indochina, and islands in the Pacific Theater. Notable during this time was Tropical Storm Cobra, which caught part of&nbsp;the 3rd Fleet at sea near the Philippines in December 1944. Though&nbsp;Wisconsin&nbsp;herself only suffered two injured sailors and proved her seaworthiness, her task force suffered over 700 men killed and over 100 aircraft destroyed or damaged--in addition to the loss of three destroyers, which sank with nearly all hands. &nbsp; In February 1945,&nbsp;Wisconsin&nbsp;joined the US 5th Fleet, participating in bombardments of Japanese coastal cities, and supporting the amphibious landings at Iwo Jima and Okinawa. She was part of the defensive screen protecting American aircraft carriers from kamikaze strikes at Okinawa. KOREAN WAR Wisconsin&nbsp;was mothballed soon after&nbsp;the Japanese surrender ended World War II, but reactivated only a few short years later when the Korean War broke out. By December 1951, she was recommissioned and back in action off the coast of Korea as the flagship of the US 7th Fleet. As North Korea possessed no navy to speak of during the conflict,&nbsp;Wisconsin's combat duties were comprised almost exclusively of supporting bombardment against onshore targets such as enemy bunkers, fortifications, command posts and artillery batteries. &nbsp;From a December 17, 1951&nbsp;clipping in Time Magazine entitled "Scratch One T-34 [tank]:" <blockquote>“Hitting a tank with a 16-in. shell from a battleship’s main battery is something like potting a mouse with an elephant gun. It isn’t often done–but when it is, there isn’t much left of the mouse."</blockquote> After the Korean War, the ship stayed active as a training vessel--though she was damaged in an accident during a 1956 training cruise off the Virginia coast, when she collided with the destroyer&nbsp;USS Eaton in a heavy fog. She was decommissioned in 1958, marking the first time the United States was without an active-service battleship since 1895. REACTIVATION and the GULF WAR That changed when she was reactivated in 1986, as part of the same 600-ship Cold War navy plan that <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=20653">resurrected the USS Iowa</a>. The ship was modernized and updated, most of her WW2-era antiaircraft guns being replaced with anti-missile batteries and Tomahawk Cruise Missile launchers. &nbsp;Her reconnaissance plane was replaced with an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), commonly called a "drone." Though never deployed against the Soviet Union, she participated in Operation Desert Storm in 1991, where her supporting fire became the first combat use of a drone by U.S. forces. &nbsp;While unmanned reconnaissance drones been used in previous wars, this was the first time one was utilized to direct the gunfire of a U.S. warship in real-time on the battlefield.&nbsp;The UAV acted as a spotter to direct&nbsp;Wisconsin's fire support, destroying an Iraqi artillery battery 19 miles away. On February 23, 1991, in one of the most widely publicized episodes of the Gulf War, Iraqi troops occupying&nbsp;Faylaka Island surrendered to the&nbsp;USS Wisconsin's reconnaissance drone. &nbsp;The drone pilot had been instructed to fly low over enemy defensive positions and Iraqi troops, who by now were aware that the drone's distinctive noise presaged a battleship's heavy bombardment, hoisted white flags of surrender. When she fired the shots of the final naval gunfire support mission of the Gulf War,&nbsp;Wisconsin became the last battleship in the world to see action. PRESENT DAY The US Navy transferred ownership of the vessel to the city of Norfolk, Virginia in 2010.The ship currently resides there&nbsp;at the Nauticus Museum, where it serves as a floating museum and is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The USS Wisconsin was launched on Dec. 7, 1943--the second anniversary of the Pearl Harbor bombing. An Iowa-class "fast battleship," she served during World War 2, the Korean War, and Operation Desert Storm. Since being decommissioned in 1991, as one of the last serving battleships in the world, the vessel has served as a floating museum.  The current exhibition in Norfolk was opened in April 2001 within the science and technology museum Nauticus. 

Battleship USS Wisconsin (BB-64)

Since its opening in 1994, Nauticus museum has brought unique exhibits on naval and maritime history and technology to the public. &nbsp;Its programs and experiences&nbsp;emphasize hands-on interactivity, with exhibits like&nbsp;Secrets of the Deep, which allows "You and your family can control an actual 9-foot long robotic arm to collect samples and artifacts from the seabed, or operate a remote-controlled camera to explore the wreck site."1 Nauticus also houses several important pieces of American naval history--not the least of which is the impressive&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=8605">USS Wisconsin</a><a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=8605"></a>, one of the last and largest battleships ever built in the United States. &nbsp;The&nbsp;Wisconsin offers several types of tours, scavenger hunts,&nbsp;and currently available are two different interactive "escape room" experiences, one of which is set during the battleship's service in 1945. The Naval History &amp; Heritage Command operates the Hampton Roads Naval Museum&nbsp;within the facility, which includes permanent exhibits on a number of US Naval milestones, including the <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=8311">Battle of Chesapeake</a> and the <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=4943">Battle of Hampton Roads</a>. The Nauticus is also home to a number of youth outreach programs, including special activities for school field trips, Girl and Boy Scout programs, Junior Scientists Club, and Sail Nauticus, a nonprofit sailing school and community sailing center whose mission is "to inspire, instruct, and impact Hampton Roads kids through the use of sailing and maritime sciences."

Located on Norfolk's downtown waterfront, Nauticus is 120,000 square-foot science and technology museum dedicated to naval history and science.  The museum includes many exhibits on maritime technology, and emphasizes interactive experiences--including "real-time" information on ships going past the museum, and escape rooms on board the real
USS Wisconsin, one of the largest and last battleships ever built by the U.S. Navy. 


Nauticus Museum

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum is home to a&nbsp;vast collection of historical artifacts and a wealth of information surrounding one of America's most important naval ports.&nbsp;&nbsp;ORIGINS Less than a decade before the American Revolution, what would eventually come to be called the Norfolk Naval Shipyard was founded in 1767 under the name of Gosport Shipyard by Andrew Sprowle. Both a merchant and shipowner, Sprowle was a staunch Royalist and personal friend of the English colonial governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore. &nbsp;When Dunmore retreated in 1776, following defeats&nbsp;<a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=688">Battle of Great Bridge</a> and the <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=9753">burning of Norfolk</a>, Sprowle was exiled with other Royalists to Gwynn's Island in Chesapeake Bay, where he died 5 days later. &nbsp;Possession of the Gosport Shipyard fell to the newly formed Commonwealth of Virginia. The rebellious colonists were unable to put their new shipbuilding facilities to much use before British troops burned them in 1779--Gosport would contribute no more to the Revolution. &nbsp;But in 1794, with American merchant ships being preyed upon by the Barbary Pirate sultanates of the Ottoman Empire, Congress recognized a need for greater naval protection and passed the Naval Act of 1794:"Whereas the depredations committed by the Algerine (sic) corsairs on the commerce of the United States, render it necessary that a naval force should be provided for its protection."4It was around this time that six ports were designated to receive funds and facilities for the exclusive use of the new United States Navy. &nbsp;One of the other new yards, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is the reason Gosport Navy Yard was not (and has not been) renamed after the Virginia city in which it is actually located.The first keel laid in the rebuilt Gosport Navy Yard would be the&nbsp;USS Chesapeake, a 38-gun frigate launched in 1799. &nbsp;The shipyard was active throughout the first several decades of the 19th Century, producing warships for the Barbary Wars and the War of 1812. &nbsp;In 1834, Navy Yard's Drydock Number One became operational, making it the first drydock in the Western Hemisphere, just a few weeks ahead of several other competing drydocks. &nbsp;President Jackson attended the opening, so important was this new facility to US naval power. Drydock Number One&nbsp;continues to serve the US Navy today.ANTEBELLUM SLAVERY in GOSPORT NAVY YARD From the 1830s until the onset of the Civil War, slave labor was employed in the Yard for various purposes, primarily due to being cheaper than white laborers. &nbsp;A number of the now-unemployed white laborers&nbsp;objected, petitioning for intercession from the Board of Navy Commissioners. &nbsp;The commandant of the Gosport Yard, Commodore Lewis Warrington, swayed the BNC in favor of keeping slave labor in place, arguing that it was significantly cheaper (fees were paid per laborer to the owner of the slave, often at ten cents or more cheaper per day than a free white laborer). Further concerns were raised by the Portsmouth community, who feared in the wake of the bloody Nat Turner slave rebellion of 1831 that further uprisings could occur, with so many Black slaves concentrated in one place (at the time there were, according to the Commandant, "about two hundred and forty six Blacks employed in the Yard and Dock altogether.")6&nbsp;. &nbsp;Warrington addressed his appraisal to the Navy Commissioners:<blockquote>"The Blacks are not difficult to govern in the Yard, and I have heard of no "'insurrectionary” "'disorderly or refractory” spirits exhibited by them..."6</blockquote>The shipyard continued to make use of slave labor until after the Civil War.AMERICAN CIVIL WAR When the state of Virginia seceded at the outset of the Civil War, the Federal garrison was afraid Confederate troops would seize the facility. The Navy Yard's commandant was determined to destroy it, but a clever ruse by future Conederate General William Mahone precipitated the commandant's plans, causing Federal forces to abandon the shipyard before its destruction was complete. &nbsp;Most of the ships therein were destroyed by the departing garrison, but the facilities themselves remained largely intact.This allowed the nascent Confederate Navy to refit the burnt hull of the&nbsp;USS Merrimac, rebuilding it with iron armor plate and rechristening it the&nbsp;USS Virginia. &nbsp;This new "ironclad" steamed out of Gosport Navy Yard&nbsp;into Hampton Roads on March 8, 1862 and wreaked havoc on the blockading Union squadron, causing panic and much loss of life. &nbsp;Fortunately for the Union, its new ironclad&nbsp;USS Monitor arrived in the area and fought the&nbsp;Virginia to a standstill in the groundbreaking <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=4943">Battle of Hampton Roads</a>.Unable to prevent Union forces from recapturing the shipyard in May 1862, Confederate troops burned the facility. &nbsp;It played no major role for the duration of the war, though it was redubbed the "Norfolk Navy Shipyard" at that time.RECONSTRUCTION and THE WORLD WARSThe shipyard accommodated repair and refitting duties for Navy ships up to the United States' entry into World War I, acting as homeport since the modern Naval Station Norfolk did not yet exist. &nbsp;At the end of World War I, and leading into World War II, the new Naval Station Norfolk took over homeport duties, allowing the Norfolk Naval Shipyard to concentrate on construction, repairs and refits.Since its Reconstruction days, the shipyard has witnessed a number of other historic firsts, including the construction of the&nbsp;USS Texas, the Navy's first battleship, in 1895; construction of the&nbsp;USS Langley, the world's first aircraft carrier; and the construction of the&nbsp;USS Enterprise, the world's first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. &nbsp;The Norfolk Naval Shipyard possesses one of the few drydocks in the world capable of holding a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, and the&nbsp;USS Enterprise&nbsp;is indeed the longest naval ship in the world.THE MUSEUM The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum celebrates the rich and enduring legacy of the Norfolk Naval Shipyard and its 250 years. &nbsp;In 2017 they will host a variety of World War I centennial events and lectures.

The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum documents and presents the rich history of America's largest and oldest shipyard industrial shipbuilding facility. Ironically, despite having undergone several name changes over the centuries, the facility has never actually been titled the "Portsmouth" Naval Shipyard, though it is in fact located in Portsmouth, Virginia.  The museum is located near the current Norfolk Naval Shipyard, which still services the U.S. Navy and is one of the few facilities in the world large enough to drydock a nuclear aircraft carrier.  In 2017, the Norfolk Naval Shipyard celebrated its 250th year.

Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum

Located on the western shore of the Elizabeth River's southern branch in Portsmouth, Virginia, Drydock Number One at the <a target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=11938">Norfolk Naval Shipyard </a>(NNSY) was the first dry dock in the Western Hemisphere. The work done at Drydock Number One has helped shape the nation's naval presence for over 230 years. This shipyard, originally put in service in 1834, is still in operation today. As such, it is the oldest operational drydock facility in the country. It specializes in repairing, overhauling and modernizing naval vessels. The Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY) was established in 1767, predating the Department of the Navy by over 30 years. It was originally established by Andrew Sprowle as the Gosport Shipyard, and often supplied the British navy. During the American Revolutionary War, Gosport was seized by the colony of Virginia. In 1801, the U.S. Navy—recognizing the importance of operating its own yards—assumed the title to the Gosport Shipyard. Prior to that it had paid the Commonwealth of Virginia for the Navy's use of the facilities. Drydock Number One was constructed in beginning in 1827 and was operational by 1834. Drydock Number One is thought to have been designed by Navy superintendent of drydocks, Loammmi Baldwin, Jr.; construction was overseen by William P.S. Sanger. The drydock cost $974,365.65 to build, a large sum at the time. It was first used in June 1833 for the recommissioning of the USS Delaware, the first time a large vessel was drydocked in the U.S. The drydock measures 319.5 feet length and is built of Massachusetts granite, which is stepped to allow access to and bracing of ships under repair. The drydock can accommodate a vessel with a maximum length of 291 ft. and a 39 ft. beam. It is 30 ft. in depth, can be dewatered in 40 minutes, and flooded in 90 minutes. Drydock Number One is also significant as the site where the USS&nbsp;Merrimack&nbsp;was rebuilt in 1862 to serve the Confederate Navy as the ironclad CSS&nbsp;Virginia. The CSS Virginia would go on to fight against the USS Monitor in <a href="https://www.theclio.com/web/entry?id=4943" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Hampton Roads</a> during the American Civil War. NNSY has assisted the nation in winning nine major wars, combating piracy, sending the Great White Fleet around the world, scientifically exploring the Pacific, and opening Japan to American trade. Over the course of its history, over 100 U.S. and allied ships were built or converted at this shipyard.&nbsp; Owing to its important role in U.S. Naval history, Drydock Number One (building 911) was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1971. Aside from this title, the facility is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places (added 1970) and is a designated on the Virginia Landmarks Register (designated 1969).

Norfolk Naval Shipyard's Drydock Number One was built in 1827 and is the is the oldest operational drydock facility in the United States, becoming operational in 1833 just weeks ahead of several competing drydock facilities. The dock specializes in the restoration and modernization of naval vessels and is the site where the Confederate Navy modified the USS Merimack, rechristening the ironclad ship "CSS Virginia." Drydock Number One is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and is both  a designated State Historical Landmark and a National Historic Landmark. It continues to function as part of the naval shipyard today. 

Naval History of Norfolk Driving Tour

Old Point Comfort Lighthouse

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information