"Dry Dock 1" Sign

Sign titled, "Dry Dock 1."

NPS Photo/MWoods

Quick Facts

Location:

Dry Dock 1

Description

Low-profile wayside that is 40.5 x 24 3/8 inches wide and sits between two raised metal sides. The interpretive panel itself is 36.25 inches wide. It has a rectangular base with two rectangular pillars supporting the panel. The panel is framed in black metal. The sign is located off of 1st Avenue, on cement directly in front of Dry Dock 1.

Layout

At the top of the sign is a black banner with white text. The text includes the title, “Dry Dock 1,” aligned to the left. Aligned to the right in the banner are two columns of two lines of text. The first column of text is “Boston National Historical Park,” followed by “Charlestown Navy Yard.” The second column states “National Park Service,” followed by “U.S. Department of the Interior.” The rest of the panel has a gray background with black text, a color drawing, and black and white images. The text and images are arranged in three rows. The top row features a square of the main text in the left-hand corner. To the right is a colored drawing that fills three-quarters of the row. A caption for the drawing sits above it in the right corner. The middle row features four images. The two images on the left are squares that sit below the main text. A black bar above them connects the images but separates them from the main text. The right two landscape images are divided between the remaining three-quarters of the row. The bottom row are the photo captions. For the square images, the captions are directly below the image, but for the rectangular images, the captions are aligned left. All image captions are italicized with bold titles.

Main Text

This stone and metal structure is Dry Dock 1, completed in 1833. As one of America’s first two granite dry docks, Dry Dock 1 made the repair of large naval ships faster, easier, and safer. Returning warships to sea duty in less time was a crucial gain for a young nation with a limited budget and a small navy. Costing more than $1.5 million, the dry docks here in Charlestown and in Norfolk, Virginia, were the largest civil works projects the federal government had ever undertaken. They proved that the nation was prepared to use its navy to protect its overseas trade. The first vessel to enter Dry Dock 1 for repairs was USS Constitution in 1833. Today, Dry Dock 1, a working pioneer, is preserved as a National Historic Civil Engineering Landmark.

Image (top row, right)

A drawing depicting a careening ship. In the left part of the image, a tan and brown ship is shown on its left (port) side, partially submerged in water. The bow of the ship faces the front of the drawing and chains drop from the ship into the water. The ship’s masts are connected by rope to a dock that juts out from the right side of the drawing. Part of the rope leads to a wooden capstan, or a simple machine used to haul up ship's anchors and equipment, that sits in the middle of the dock and has the rope wrapped around it. Instead of a sky, the background is the gray background of the sign.

Image Caption

Careening. Without a dry dock, a ship must be careened at dockside. Careening, or “heaving down,” a ship exposes only half of the hull at a time, requires major dismantling, and places great stress on a wooden hull. Occasionally, a ship would sink while being careened.

Image (second row, left square)

A black-and-white portrait of Loammi Baldwin. Loammi faces left, staring off into the distance with a serious expression on his face. He has light skin, dark eyebrows, and light, short hair. He wears a white neckcloth with a high collar that sits just below his chin underneath a black coat. It blends in with the black background. Beneath the image’s bottom read corner is text that reads “M.I.T. Historical Collection.”

Image Title

Loammi Baldwin (1780-1838), by Chester Harding

Image Caption

Chief Engineer Baldwin adapted concepts he had observed in Europe to design a dry dock complex that functioned as one large mechanism.

Image (second row, right square)

A white sheet of paper depicting a Loammi Baldwin plan for the steam engine. Text below the photo’s bottom right corner reads “Baker Library, Harvard University.”

Image Title

Dry Dock Plan, signed “Nov. 4, 1828, L. Baldwin”

Image Caption

Baldwin’s innovative plan used the yard’s first steam engine, 16 large pumps to empty the dock’s basin, and a floating gate that sealed the dock from the sea.

Image (second row, left rectangle)

A drawing of a ship in a dry dock. The hull of a ship called the USS Constellation is in the dry dock with its stern in the foreground right of center. The hull is oriented so that the left side is visible at an angle and the bow of the ship is in the background left of center. A man stands in the stern. Wooden planks span the gap from the left edge of the dry dock to the left side of the ship’s hull at two levels. Supporting the lower level of planks is a row of planks that extends from the ground at an angle. Resting perpendicular on the two levels of planks are additional planks that extend alongside the ship’s hull and make a standing area. Workers stand all along it and work on the ship. Boards are also extended on the upper level with more workers. On the ground to the left of the ship, is one man holding a wood plank. Another wooden plank is on the ground behind him. Planks also extend from the right side of the ship with the outline of a few workers standing on them, but that side is mostly hidden from view in the drawing. On the left side of the painting, a man overlooks the dry dock from the edge of the dry dock. Buildings and trees line the left background, along with an American flag that flies above the dry dock. People walk along the dry dock overlooking the workers. On the right side beyond the dry dock in the background are people and carriages standing next to a building with a cupola.

Image Caption

1851: USS Constellation in Dry Dock. In the dry basin, keel blocks and supports held the vessel upright with its entire hull exposed. Workers could then quickly replace planking and re-caulk and re-copper the ship’s bottom.

Image (second row, right rectangle)

An image of a destroyer in the dry dock from above. The destroyer USS Fred T. Berry extends from the bottom right corner of the photo towards the left top corner, with the left side of the hull visible. The ship’s stern is just out of view in the bottom right corner. The ship’s deck is covered in wires, boxes, and guns. A hangar and flight deck for the ship’s drone helicopter is in the center of the ship, and smokestacks are towards the bow. People work along the left railing of the ship. Gangways extend from both the left and right of the ship to connect the deck to the edge of the dry dock. Tools line the edge of the dry dock. A man walks along the left side of the dry dock. Buildings and cars line the background. A truck drives along the right of the ship, crossing in front of a building and building supplies. A portal crane rises into the right corner of the image, with most of the crane out of view.

Image Caption

1961: USS Fred T. Berry in Dry Dock 1. The techniques of dry-docking, as well as Dry Dock 1 itself, are still in use today.