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Puget Sound Naval Shipyard

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The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF) is a key public shipyard operated by the U.S. Naval Sea Systems Command, based in Bremerton, Washington. It delivers core maintenance, repair, and modernization services for the U.S. Navy's Pacific Fleet surface ships and submarines, and also manages vessel decommissioning and long-term preservation.

Key moments

  • 1891Established as a U.S. Naval Station
  • 1901Officially redesignated as Navy Yard Puget Sound
  • 1914–1918Constructed dozens of naval vessels including submarines and subchasers during World War I
  • 1945Reached peak employment of 32,500 workers during World War II
  • 21st centuryServes as a primary maintenance hub for Pacific Fleet nuclear-powered warships and stores decommissioned naval vessels

Strategic Operational Role

As the only major public shipyard on the U.S. Pacific Northwest coast, PSNS & IMF fills a critical gap in the Navy's logistics network. Its location near Naval Base Kitsap's submarine and aircraft carrier facilities allows for rapid, on-site maintenance, cutting down on transit costs and operational downtime for frontline Pacific Fleet units.

Local Economic and Cultural Impact

For over 130 years, the shipyard has been the economic backbone of the Bremerton area. During World War II, its massive workforce spurred local population and business growth, and today it remains one of the region's largest employers. The adjacent Puget Sound Navy Museum also turns the facility into a cultural attraction, educating visitors on U.S. naval history.

Specialized and Challenging Missions

PSNS & IMF is one of a small number of U.S. shipyards certified to handle nuclear-powered naval vessels, giving it unique responsibility for the safe decommissioning and recycling of retired nuclear warships. This role also brings ongoing environmental management responsibilities to address decades of industrial and potential nuclear waste from shipbuilding and repair operations.

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, officially Puget Sound Naval Shipyard and Intermediate Maintenance Facility (PSNS & IMF), is a United States Navy shipyard covering 179 acres (0.7 km2) on Puget Sound at Bremerton, Washington, in uninterrupted use since its establishment in 1891; it has also been known as Navy Yard Puget Sound, Bremerton Navy Yard, and the Bremerton Naval Complex.

It is bordered on the south by Sinclair Inlet, on the west by the Bremerton Annex of Naval Base Kitsap, and on the north and east by the city of Bremerton, Washington. It is the Pacific Northwest's largest naval shore facility and one of Washington state's largest industrial installations. PSNS & IMF provides the Navy with maintenance, modernization, and technical and logistics support, and employs 15,000 people which makes it the largest public shipyard in terms of personnel assigned.[1]

History

Puget Sound Naval Shipyard was established in 1891 as a Naval Station and was designated Navy Yard Puget Sound in 1901. During World War I, the Navy Yard constructed ships, including 25 subchasers, seven submarines, two minesweepers, seven seagoing tugs, and two ammunition ships, as well as 1,700 small boats. During World War II, the shipyard's primary effort was the repair of battle damage to ships of the U.S. fleet and those of its allies.

Following World War II, Navy Yard Puget Sound was designated Puget Sound Naval Shipyard. It engaged in an extensive program of modernizing carriers, including converting conventional flight decks to angle decks. During the Korean War, the shipyard was engaged in the activation of ships. In the late 1950s, it entered an era of new construction with the building of a new class of guided missile frigates. In 1965, USS Sculpin (SSN 590) became the first nuclear-powered submarine to be maintained at PSNS. The shipyard was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1992.[2][3] The historic district includes 22 contributing buildings and 42 contributing structures, as well as 49 non-contributing buildings, structures, and objects.[3]

Installations

Perhaps the most visible feature of the shipyard is its green hammerhead crane, built in 1933. The PSNS hammerhead crane is 250 ft tall and 80 ft wide with a lifting capacity of 250 tons.[4]

Historic districts

The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard contains five historic districts:

These five units are a comprehensive representation of the historic features of the naval shipyard.

  • 1) Officers' Row Historic District;
  • 2) Puget Sound Radio Station Historic District;
  • 3) Hospital Reservation Historic District;
  • 4) Puget Sound Naval Shipyard Historic District; and
  • 5) Marine Reservation Historic District.

Dry Docks and Slipways

Operations

Shipbuilding

  • Heavy cruisers
  • 1 of 6 Northampton-class cruiser (built July 1928 - September 1930)
  • USS Louisville (CA-28)
  • 1 of 7 New Orleans-class cruiser (September 1930 - December 1933)
  • USS Astoria (CA-34)
  • Destroyers
  • 1 of 8 Farragut-class destroyer (built December 1932 - October 1934)
  • USS Worden (DD-352)
  • 2 of 18 Mahan-class destroyer (August 1934 - December 1935)
  • USS Cushing (DD-376)
  • USS Perkins (DD-377)
  • 2 of 8 Bagley-class destroyer (July 1935 - May 1937)
  • USS Patterson (DD-392)
  • USS Jarvis (DD-393)
  • 1 of 8 Benham-class destroyer (March 1937 - April 1939)
  • USS Wilson (DD-408)
  • 1 of 30 Benson-class destroyer (January 1939 - May 1940)
  • USS Charles F. Hughes (DD-428)
  • 1 of 66 Gleaves-class destroyer (July 1939 - May 1940)
  • USS Monssen (DD-436)
  • 8 of 175 Fletcher-class destroyer (June 1941 - September 1944)
  • USS Halford (DD-480)
  • USS Leutze (DD-481)
  • USS Howorth (DD-592)
  • USS Killen (DD-593)
  • USS Hart (DD-594)
  • USS Metcalf (DD-595)
  • USS Shields (DD-596)
  • USS Wiley (DD-597)
  • 8 of 65 Evarts-class destroyer escorts (September 1942 - August 1943)
  • USS Greiner (DE-37) ... USS Donaldson (DE-44)

Ship-Submarine Recycling Program

In 1990 the Navy authorized the Ship-Submarine Recycling Program (SRP) to recycle nuclear-powered ships at PSNS. Approximately 25% of the shipyard's workload involves inactivation, reactor compartment disposal, and recycling of ships. It has pioneered an environmentally safe method of deactivating and recycling nuclear-powered ships. This process places the U.S. Navy in the role of being the world's only organization to design, build, operate, and recycle nuclear-powered ships. On 15 May 2003 PSNS and IMF were consolidated into what is now known as PSNS & IMF.

PSNS is the only U.S. facility certified to recycle nuclear ships. During all this period Puget Sound Naval Shipyard has scrapped more than 125 submarines and some cruisers.[8]

Reserve fleet

The shipyard contains a portion of the United States Navy reserve fleet, a large collection of inactive U.S. Navy vessels.[9] The aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV-63) was mothballed there until May 2022 when it was removed for scrapping.[10]

Environmental issues

Gorst Creek Ravine near Port Orchard, Washington was a hazardous waste dump for the Navy's shipyard waste between 1969 and 1970, when the site was not permitted by local authorities to take waste.[11] After several collapses since 1997 the landfill could blow out Highway 3. The landfill is an "ongoing source of pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls and metals flowing downstream with the potential to affect groundwater wells, sport fisheries and the Suquamish Tribe's fish hatchery.[11] In October 2014, the US EPA ordered the Navy to fix the problems.[12]

Gallery

See also

  • List of U.S. National Historic Landmark ships, shipwrecks, and shipyards

External links

References

  1. Josh Farley. USS Carl Vinson sailor tests positive for novel coronavirus Kitsap Sun, 23 March 2020^
  2. Puget Sound Naval Shipyard National Historic Landmark summary listing, National Park Service, retrieved 2008-04-12^
  3. and (3.71 MB) Erwin N. Thompson and Ben Levy. National Register of Historic Places Registration: Navy Yard Puget Sound / Bremerton Navy Yard; Puget Sound Naval Shipyard National Park Service, 20 December 1990, retrieved 2009-05-03^
  4. Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Kirk T. Putnam. Senior Chief Re-enlists on Historic Bremerton Landmark America's Navy, 19 July 2009, retrieved 3 February 2021^
  5. Louise Reh. Nipsic to Nimitz Puget Sound Navy Museum Foundation, 1991^
  6. Drydocking Facilities Characteristics^
  7. Frederick Gardiner Fassett. The Shipbuilding Business in the United States of America Society of Naval Architects and Marine Engineers, 1948^
  8. Navy exploring private firms for typically PSNS work retrieved 12 August 2016^
  9. Navy Decommissions USS Kitty Hawk America's Navy, 12 May 2009, retrieved 15 December 2015^
  10. Ed Friedrich. Kitty Hawk Gives Bremerton a Quartet of Vietnam-Era Carriers Kitsap Sun, 6 February 2009, retrieved 15 December 2015^
  11. EPA to Navy: Fix issues at former dump Columbian (WA), Associated Press, 16 October 2014, retrieved 19 November 2014^
  12. Christopher Dunagan. EPA wants Navy to help fix former dump retrieved 2015-09-10^