Charleston Naval Shipyard (formerly known as the Charleston Navy Yard) was a
U.S. Navy ship
A ship is a large watercraft, vessel that travels the world's oceans and other Waterway, navigable waterways, carrying cargo or passengers, or in support of specialized missions, such as defense, research and fishing. Ships are generally disti ...
building and repair facility located along the west bank of the
Cooper River, in
North Charleston, South Carolina
North Charleston is a city in Berkeley, Charleston, and Dorchester counties in the U.S. state of South Carolina.City Planning Department (2008-07)City of North Charleston boundary map. City of North Charleston. Retrieved January 21, 2011. As ...
and part of Naval Base Charleston.
History
It began operations in 1901 as a
drydock
A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...
, and continued as a navy facility until 1996 when it ceased operations as the result of recommendations of the
1993 Base Realignment and Closure Commission
The United Nations General Assembly, General Assembly of the United Nations designated 1993 as:
* International Year for the World's Indigenous People
The year 1993 in the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands had only 364 days, since its ...
. At that time it was leased to ''Detyens Shipyards, Inc.''
Originally designated as the Navy Yard and later as the Naval Base it had a large impact upon the local community, the tri-county area and the entire State of South Carolina.
The yard first produced the
destroyer
In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, maneuverable, long-endurance warship intended to escort
larger vessels in a fleet, convoy, or carrier battle group and defend them against a wide range of general threats. They were conceived i ...
, then began to increase production in the 1930s. A total of 21 destroyers were assembled at the naval facility.
In 1931,
Ellicott Dredges delivered the 20-inch cutter
dredge
Dredging is the excavation of material from a water environment. Possible reasons for dredging include improving existing water features; reshaping land and water features to alter drainage, navigability, and commercial use; constructing ...
''Orion'' still in operation at the old Charleston Naval Shipyard.
Two of the largest vessels ever built at the yard were two
destroyer tenders, and . The keels of these ships were laid in November 1944 and July 1945, respectively. Peak employment of 25,948 was reached in July 1943.
After the war, the shipyard was responsible for the repairs and alterations of captured German submarines. In April 1948, Secretary of the Navy
John L. Sullivan told Charleston's Representative
Rivers
A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it ru ...
and Senator
Burnet R. Maybank that the navy planned for CNSY to become a submarine overhaul yard and would ask for an initial appropriation for a battery-charging unit.

The first submarine, , arrived for overhaul in August 1948. The shipyard expected to overhaul about 132 ships during the year, and its work force had stabilized to nearly 5,000 persons.
North Korean invasion of South Korea in June 1950 increased production once again. By 1951, the shipyard was back to over 8,000 employees. In all, the shipyard activated forty-four vessels and converted twenty-seven for active fleet duty during the
Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
.
Submarines continued to be built into the 1960s along with missiles, and
nuclear submarine
A nuclear submarine is a submarine powered by a nuclear reactor, but not necessarily nuclear-armed.
Nuclear submarines have considerable performance advantages over "conventional" (typically diesel-electric) submarines. Nuclear propulsion ...
overhauls took place including in 1962. In 1966, the shipyard completed the first
refueling of a nuclear submarine, , and began its first overhaul of a
Fleet Ballistic Missile (FBM) submarine, . Captain
Blake Wayne Van Leer led the expansion and construction of Dry Dock No. 2 so it could handle the massive FBM submarines and destroyers fitted with
sonar
Sonar (sound navigation and ranging or sonic navigation and ranging) is a technique that uses sound propagation (usually underwater, as in submarine navigation) to navigate, measure distances ( ranging), communicate with or detect objects o ...
.
The facility remained a major installation throughout the
Cold War
The Cold War was a period of global Geopolitics, geopolitical rivalry between the United States (US) and the Soviet Union (USSR) and their respective allies, the capitalist Western Bloc and communist Eastern Bloc, which lasted from 1947 unt ...
as a homeport to numerous cruisers, destroyers,
attack submarine
An attack submarine or hunter-killer submarine is a submarine specifically designed for the purpose of attacking and sinking other submarines, surface combatants, and merchant vessels. In the Soviet Navy, Soviet and Russian Navy, Russian navies ...
s, FBM submarines, destroyer tenders, and submarine tenders of the
U.S. Atlantic Fleet until its closure in the 1990s as a result of the end of the Cold War and subsequent
BRAC Commission action.
Dry Docks and Slipways
List of Ships
* 20 Destroyers
** 1 of 10 :
** 1 of 12 :
** 1 of 30 :
** 7 of 66
***
*** ,
*** ,
*** ,
** 10 of 175
*** ...
*** ...
***
***
* 26 Destroyer escorts and APDs
** 15 of 148
*** ...
** 2 of 22
*** ,
** 9 of 51 s
*** ...
* 2 of 6 s
** ,
* 8 of 1052
Landing Ship Tank
** LST-353 - LST-360
* 121 of 558
Landing Ship Medium
** LSM-126 - LSM-200, LSM-295 - LSM-309, LSM-389 - LSM-413, LSM-553 - LSM-558
Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Charleston
The Atlantic Reserve Fleet, Charleston opened in 1946 at the shipyard to store the many surplus ships after World War II. As part of the
United States Navy reserve fleets, the fleet "mothballed" ships and submarines. Many of the ships in the fleet were reactivated for the
Korean War
The Korean War (25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953) was an armed conflict on the Korean Peninsula fought between North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea; DPRK) and South Korea (Republic of Korea; ROK) and their allies. North Korea was s ...
and some for the
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...
. The
Reserve Fleet
A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed; they are partially or fully Ship decommissioning, decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothba ...
closed in 1996 with the shipyard. The ships were scrapped or moved to other reserve fleets.
Post-BRAC
Military and industrial use
With the closure of the Naval Base and Charleston Naval Shipyard in 1996, Detyens, Inc. signed a long-term lease. With three dry docks, one floating dock, and six piers, Detyens Shipyards, Inc. is the largest commercial facility on the East Coast. Projects include military, commercial, and cruise ships.
In supporting
Joint Base Charleston, of the former Charleston Naval Base/Naval Shipyard facility have been transformed into a multiuse Federal complex, with 17 Government and Military tenants, as well as homeport for six RO-RO
Military Sealift Command
The Military Sealift Command (MSC) is an organization that controls the replenishment and military transport ships of the United States Navy. Military Sealift Command has the responsibility for providing sealift and ocean transportation for all U ...
ships, four Coast Guard
National Security Cutters, two NOAA research ships, the
United States Coast Guard Maritime Law Enforcement Academy, and the
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center FLETC-Charleston.
Lastly, a 350-acre section of the former base was planned to be a sustainable, mixed-use urban hub for the city of North Charleston to be called The Navy Yard at Noisette, starting in 2005. However, in 2010, the developer, the Noisette company, went into foreclosure and Palmetto Railways, part of the S.C. Department of Commerce purchased over 200-acres of the property. In 2013, Palmetto Railways purchased the remaining part of The Navy Yard. The plan is to run freight trains through the north end of the former base to serve a new container port, Navy Base Intermodal Container Transfer Facility, that is under construction at the south end of the former base.
In February 2020,
Coast Guard
A coast guard or coastguard is a Maritime Security Regimes, maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with cust ...
Admiral Karl Schultz announced that the shipyard would be included in a planned "super base." The plan would consolidate Coast Guard assets to the North Charleston region and occur within five years. Construction began in 2024.
The Naval Hospital Historic District
The initial Palmetto Railways plan for the former Naval Shipyard required the demolition of several historic structures which led the
National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a privately funded, nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that works in the field of historic preservation in the United States. The member-supported organization was founded in 1949 ...
to add the Charleston Naval Hospital Historic District to its 11 Most Endangered Places list in 2016. The National Trust stated that the plan's proposed demolition of 9 out of the district's 32 buildings would possibly lead to the district being de-listed from the
National Register of Historic Places
The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...
.
See also
*
Joint Base Charleston
*
Naval Support Activity Charleston
*
Warren Lasch Conservation Center
*
Naval Health Clinic Charleston
*
Charleston Navy Yard Officers' Quarters Historic District
References
National Historic Register nomination formfor the Charleston Navy Yard Historic District, South Carolina Department of Archives and History, 2006.
Further reading
*
*
External links
Navy Yard at Noisette (redevelopment)Detyens Shipyards Inc.*
{{Authority control
Military facilities on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina
Buildings and structures in North Charleston, South Carolina
United States Navy shipyards
Military installations closed in 1996
National Register of Historic Places in North Charleston, South Carolina
Historic American Engineering Record in South Carolina
Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in South Carolina
Shipyards on the National Register of Historic Places
Closed installations of the United States Navy
1901 establishments in South Carolina
1996 disestablishments in South Carolina
Shipyards building World War II warships