The first ship built by the Navy Yard, the USS Independence was the nation's first ship-of-the-line to enter service. Regarded as somewhat unsuccessful, largely because of the ill-advised modifications made by Capt. William Bainbridge during construction, the ship was taken into Dry Dock 1 and "razed" (cut down) to a large frigate in 1835-36. A much more successful ship thereafter, it was long a fixture at the Mare Island Navy Yard, serving as receving ship there from 1857 to 1912. Plans to converth the venerable ship into a floating restaurant at the Panama-Pacific Exposition fell through, and Independence was finally burned for scrap off Hunter's Point in San Francisco.
 
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