Lewin of Greenwich Naval History & Forum

Puget Sound Navy Yard pictured from the foremast of Indiana Class Pre-Dreadnought Battleship USS Oregon in 1908..Image courtesy of the Washington University Asahel Curtis Collection.

A discarded 20 inch smooth bore muzzle loader pictured stored at Brooklyn Navy Yard c1900.

Lead Ship, Torpedo Boat No 6, USS Porter pictured at Brooklyn Navy Yard c 1899.

Views of the old ironclad BB INDIANA.......... DFO

Lead Ship, Pre-Dreadnought Battleship USS Maine pictured on July 1st 1918...

Kearsage Class Pre-Dreadnought Battleship USS Kentucky pictured off Brooklyn Navy Yard c1900.

Submersible 'The Intelligent Whale' pictured on display at Brooklyn Navy Yard c1946........Intelligent Whale was built on the design of Scovel Sturgis Merriam in 1863 by Augustus Price and Cornelius Scranton Bushnell. In 1864 the American Submarine Company was formed, taking over the interests of Bushnell and Price and there followed years of litigation over the ownership of the craft. Intelligent Whale was completed and launched in 1866. When title was established by a court the Submarine was sold on October 29th 1869 through a contract made by owner Oliver Halstead and Secretary of the Navy George M. Robeson to the United States Navy Department, with most of the price to be paid after successful trials. In September 1872 the first trial was held and was unsuccessful, whereupon the Department refused further payments and abandoned the project.
Intelligent Whale submerged by filling water compartments, and expelled the water by pumps and compressed air. It was estimated that it could stay submerged for about ten hours. Thirteen crewmen could be accommodated, but only six were needed to make her operational. The only known trial, reported by Submarine pioneer John Philip Holland, was made by a certain General Sweeney and two others. They submerged the boat in 16 feet of water and Sweeney, clad in a diver's suit, emerged through a hole in the bottom, placed a charge under a scow, and reentered the Submarine. The charge was exploded by a lanyard and a friction primer attached to the charge, sinking the scow.
Following the failed trial in 1872, Intelligent Whale was put on display at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and remained there until 1968 when she was moved to the Washington Navy Yard where she remained until being relocated to the National Guard Militia Museum of New Jersey in Sea Girt, New Jersey, where she is currently on display.

Pre-Dreadnought Battleship USS Texas pictured in the Delaware River in October 1898.

Hospital Ship USS Mercy pictured in 1918...She was previously known as SS Saratoga, a steamer for the Ward Line on the New York to Havana route, and considered the fastest steamship in coastal trade. Built at William Cramp & Sons Shipyards at Philadelphia in 1907, prior to being purchased by the Navy, she was briefly employed as United States Army Transport Ship USAT Saratoga, a career that ended after a collision off Staten Island, New York...In her Navy career, Mercy made four transatlantic round trips to France, bringing home almost 2,000 wounded men. After the end of World War I, she was based in Philadelphia, and briefly laid up there in 1924. The ship was decommissioned in 1934 and lent to the Federal Emergency Relief Administration, struck in 1938, and scrapped in 1939.

Dry Dock No 4 pictured under construction at Brooklyn Navy Yard on October 3rd 1911.