Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Navy in Puget Sound
    The Navy in Puget Sound
    The Navy in Puget Sound
    Ebook185 pages1 hour

    The Navy in Puget Sound

    By Cory Graff and Puget Sound Navy Museum

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Even before settlers came to the Puget Sound, the U.S. Navy was exploring the sheltered inlets and deep water ports of what was dubbed "America's Mediterranean." In 1856, the sailors of the navy warship Decatur repelled an attack by Native Americans, saving a tiny village on the shores of Elliott Bay named Seattle. In the ensuing years, Puget Sound became the West Coast's premier port of call for the navy's vessels and aircraft operating in the vast Pacific Ocean. During World War II, the region turned out a long line of combat and support vessels while quickly repairing many other ships that had been horribly damaged in clashes with the Japanese. In both peace and war, the communities of Puget Sound and the U.S. Navy have shared an enduring partnership that remains today.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateSep 18, 2012
    ISBN9781439640234
    The Navy in Puget Sound

    Read more from Cory Graff

    Related to The Navy in Puget Sound

    Related ebooks

    Wars & Military For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Dole Disaster

      Apr 25, 2023

      The Dole Disaster
      12 min read

    • Article

      Facing Off With The Flivver

      Jul 9, 2019

      Henry Ford was notoriously reluctant to change the Model T, his “Universal Car,” which he felt was more than adequate for the transportation needs of America and the world. Dissent on this point was treated harshly. According to Ford biographer Rober

      4 min read

    • Article

      Black Forest Bateau

      Sep 29, 2023

      Black Forest Bateau
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Glorious ‘Stringbag’

      Jan 1, 2019

      The Glorious ‘Stringbag’
      9 min read

    • Article

      New Books We Like

      Oct 10, 2020

      Field Notes from an Unintentional Birder, by Julie Zarankin, Douglas & McIntyre, 2020, paperback, 256 pages, $18.95. The list of authors who can say that their first book received praise from birding legends Kenn Kaufman and Scott Weidensaul must be

      4 min read

    • Article

      Beyond “Vina”

      Apr 13, 2021

      Beyond “Vina”
      4 min read

    • Article

      A Homecoming Story

      Aug 22, 2023

      A Homecoming Story
      3 min read

    • Article

      Not Nimitz

      Dec 22, 2020

      Not Nimitz
      2 min read

    • Article

      Final Mission

      Oct 11, 2022

      Final Mission
      11 min read

    • Article

      Thunder In The Cinema

      Jul 2, 2019

      Thunder In The Cinema
      10 min read

    • Article

      Tracing ‘The Most Buried Man In The World’: John Paul Jones, Scotland And The Us

      Oct 7, 2023

      ‘Do you know who he is?’ I asked the middle-aged man standing in front of the statue of John Paul Jones, one ofWashington DC’s many monuments and memorials built to convey American national self-confidence. Not far from us on the National Mall stood

      6 min read

    • Article

      Superlative Era

      Feb 11, 2022

      Superlative Era
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Cure (?) For What Ails Ya

      Nov 14, 2023

      A Cure (?) For What Ails Ya
      4 min read

    • Article

      Bombs Away

      Dec 21, 2021

      Bombs Away
      2 min read

    • Article

      Flying Far

      Oct 30, 2019

      Flying Far
      12 min read

    • Article

      The Spot

      Jun 16, 2022

      The Spot
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Return to Cruising

      Jan 14, 2020

      A Return to Cruising
      8 min read

    • Article

      From Our Readers

      Jun 11, 2022

      From Our Readers
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Navy in Puget Sound

    4/5

    2 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      After living in Seattle for my growing up years and driving through Bremerton many times, it was neat to see some of the naval history in this book.

    Book preview

    The Navy in Puget Sound - Cory Graff

    reality.

    INTRODUCTION

    On May 2, 1841, U.S. Navy vessels USS Vincennes and Porpoise sailed into the Strait of Juan de Fuca at the mouth of Puget Sound. The men of the United States Exploring Expedition had been traveling the globe for nearly three years, and most of them were ready to sack their commander, the overbearing Charles Wilkes. The new task ahead was a pleasant one, however, compared to what they had been through. The exhausted crew had battled massive walls of floating ice in the frozen reaches of Antarctica, climbed to the top of an active volcano in Hawaii, and fought with the natives of Fiji. Now all they had to do was survey paradise.

    At least it was paradise as far as the navy was concerned. Like Britain’s George Vancouver before him, Wilkes and his contemporaries saw the Puget Sound as an ideal western port for the warships of America’s growing navy. Miles of deep-water inlets and sheltered shores, along with a nearly inexhaustible supply of natural resources, made the region extremely valuable. And unlike some of the groups the explorers had encountered in the Pacific, the natives were friendly.

    As more white settlers came to the area in the years after Wilkes, the mood of the area’s original inhabitants changed. By 1855, the sloop of war USS Decatur was dispatched from Hawaii to protect the men and women of the tiny village named Seattle from the increasingly restless Native Americans. Tensions boiled over in January 1856, when hostile forces attacked the outpost on the shores of Elliott Bay. The ship’s marines and civilian volunteers fought back, assisted by repeated and terrifying fusillades from the Decatur’s heavy guns. The very presence of the navy warship and its crew saved the citizens of Seattle from a terrible massacre.

    When it was clear that Puget Sound would surely be part of the growing United States of America, navy men traveled west, looking to establish permanent bases in what was dubbed America’s Mediterranean. Lt. Ambrose Barkley Wyckoff came to Washington Territory to further explore and document the sound, with an eye toward building a naval base and shipyard. Back east, in the other Washington, Wyckoff became a strong advocate for the navy’s presence in Puget Sound.

    In 1891, carrying $10,000 awarded by Congress, Wyckoff returned to the newly formed state of Washington to purchase land for a new navy yard on the shores of Puget Sound. He and others on the shipyard committee chose a site at Point Turner, on Sinclair Inlet, near what is today the city of Bremerton. In a short time, the navy held slightly more than 190 acres for the purchase price of $9,587.25. Wyckoff became the first commander of Puget Sound Naval Station. By 1903, the shipyard facilities and construction efforts had made the base the largest employer in the region.

    While Puget Sound offered an exemplary safe harbor for the repair and maintenance of navy ships working in the vast Pacific Ocean, it would also become the birthplace of new vessels. The Puget Sound Navy Yard’s (PSNY) first navy craft could only be called modest. It was a small water barge, slid sideways into a flooded dry dock basin in 1904. That same year, the Moran Brothers Company, near downtown Seattle, launched the 441-foot-long hull of a Virginia-class battleship.

    Though it was to be named USS Nebraska (BB-14), citizens of the region thought of the new vessel as Seattle’s battleship. They had donated over $100,000 to the project to assure that the ship was built in Puget Sound. In 1908, the Nebraska joined the Great White Fleet in San Francisco, traveling more than 29,000 miles around the globe.

    America’s Great White Fleet visited Puget Sound too. On the first leg of their journey, the 16 battleships and their support vessels sailed from Virginia to San Francisco by steaming around Cape Horn at the bottom of South America. The third part of the voyage would be from San Francisco to the Philippines. In between, the ships cruised north along the West Coast to Washington State, solely to visit the growing Puget Sound region.

    It was a proud moment for Washingtonians. In May 1908, the beautiful white-hulled battleships arrived. Amid the parades, speeches, and celebratory dinners, each crew from every battleship was given a black bear cub mascot from the city of Aberdeen, Washington, as a gesture of goodwill and good luck on their cruise around the world.

    In the years that followed, the Puget Sound became a regular port of call for the U.S. Navy. Many of America’s famous warships would visit the region during their duties in the Pacific, including veterans of the Spanish-American War such as the USS Oregon (BB-3), the famous battleship USS Arizona (BB-39), and the navy’s first aircraft carrier, USS Langley (CV-1). In 1928, the nation’s two newest aircraft carriers, USS Lexington (CV-2) and USS Saratoga (CV-3), were both at Puget Sound Navy Yard at the same time, docked side by side.

    The Lexington returned a little more than a year later to help one Puget Sound city out of a crisis. A rare drought in the winter of 1929 left Tacoma without enough water in local reservoirs to generate hydroelectric power. At Baker Dock, resourceful engineers plugged the Lady Lex into the electrical grid, using the carrier’s boilers to help Tacoma through a tough Christmas.

    The oldest navy warship to ever visit the Puget Sound was built in Boston and launched in 1797. USS Constitution, still a commissioned warship today, visited the region during a three-year tour of American ports after its restoration in 1930.

    Aviation, too, became a critical part of the navy’s presence in Puget Sound. Famous flyers Eugene Ely and Hugh Robinson dazzled Seattle residents as they buzzed over Elliott Bay in their Curtiss

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1