Newport News Shipyard, aerial view, Oct 1994

Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS), a division of

Huntington Ingalls Industries HII (formerly Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc.) is the largest military shipbuilding company in the United States as well as a provider of professional services to partners in government and industry. HII, ranked No. 371 on the Fortune 500, w ...

, is the largest industrial employer in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the East Coast of the United States, Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography an ...

, and sole designer, builder and refueler of United States Navy aircraft carriers and one of two providers of U.S. Navy

submarine A submarine (or sub) is a watercraft capable of independent operation underwater. It differs from a submersible, which has more limited underwater capability. The term is also sometimes used historically or colloquially to refer to remotely op ...

s. Founded as the Chesapeake Dry Dock and Construction Co. in 1886, Newport News Shipbuilding has built more than 800 ships, including both naval and commercial ships. Located in the city of Newport News, its facilities span more than , strategically positioned in one of the great harbors of the East Coast. The shipyard is a major employer, not only for the lower Virginia Peninsula, but also portions of Hampton Roads south of the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Chesapea ...

and the harbor, portions of the Middle Peninsula region, and even some northeastern counties of

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia a ...

. The shipyard is building the s and . In 2013, Newport News Shipbuilding began the deactivation of the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, , which it also built. Newport News Shipbuilding also performs refueling and complex overhaul (RCOH) work on s. This is a four-year vessel renewal program that not only involves refueling of the vessel's nuclear reactors but also includes modernization work. The yard has completed RCOH for five ''Nimitz''-class carriers (, , , and ). As of November 2017 this work was underway for the sixth ''Nimitz''-class vessel, .

History

Industrialist Collis P. Huntington (1821–1900) provided crucial funding to complete the Chesapeake and Ohio Railroad (C&O) from

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

to the

Ohio River The Ohio River is a long river in the United States. It is located at the boundary of the Midwestern and Southern United States, flowing southwesterly from western Pennsylvania to its mouth on the Mississippi River at the southern tip of Illino ...

in the early 1870s. Although originally built for general commerce, this C&O rail link to the midwest was soon also being used to transport bituminous coal from the previously isolated coalfields, adjacent to the New River and the Kanawha River in West Virginia. In 1881, the

Peninsula Extension The Peninsula Extension which created the Peninsula Subdivision of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway (C&O) was the new railroad line on the Virginia Peninsula from Richmond to southeastern Warwick County. Its principal purpose was to provide an ...

of the C&O was built from Richmond down the Virginia Peninsula to reach a new coal pier on

Hampton Roads Hampton Roads is the name of both a body of water in the United States that serves as a wide channel for the James River, James, Nansemond River, Nansemond and Elizabeth River (Virginia), Elizabeth rivers between Old Point Comfort and Sewell's ...

in Warwick County near the small unincorporated community of Newport News Point. However, building the railroad and coal pier was only the first part of Huntington's dreams for Newport News.

The shipyard's early years

Northrop Grumman Newport News 032007 001

In 1886, Huntington built a

shipyard A shipyard, also called a dockyard or boatyard, is a place where ships are built and repaired. These can be yachts, military vessels, cruise liners or other cargo or passenger ships. Dockyards are sometimes more associated with maintenance a ...

to repair ships servicing this transportation hub. In 1891 Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company delivered its first ship, the tugboat ''Dorothy''. By 1897 NNS had built three warships for the US Navy: , and . When Collis died in 1900, his nephew

Henry E. Huntington Henry Edwards Huntington (February 27, 1850 – May 23, 1927) was an American railroad magnate and collector of art and rare books. Huntington settled in Los Angeles, where he owned the Pacific Electric Railway as well as substantial real estate ...

inherited much of his uncle's fortune. He also married Collis' widow Arabella Huntington, and assumed Collis' leadership role with Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company. Under Henry Huntington's leadership, growth continued. In 1906 the revolutionary launched a great naval race worldwide. Between 1907 and 1923, Newport News built six of the US Navy's total of 22 dreadnoughts – , , , , and . All but the first were in active service in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. In 1907 President Theodore Roosevelt sent the

Great White Fleet The Great White Fleet was the popular nickname for the group of United States Navy battleships which completed a journey around the globe from December 16, 1907 to February 22, 1909 by order of President Theodore Roosevelt. Its mission was t ...

on its round-the-world voyage. NNS had built seven of its 16 battleships. In 1914 NNS built SS ''Medina'' for the Mallory Steamship Company; as she was until 2009 the world's oldest active ocean-faring

passenger ship A passenger ship is a merchant ship whose primary function is to carry passengers on the sea. The category does not include cargo vessels which have accommodations for limited numbers of passengers, such as the ubiquitous twelve-passenger freig ...

Newport News and the shipyard

In the early years, leaders of the Newport News community and those of the shipyard were virtually interchangeable. Shipyard president Walter A. Post served from March 9, 1911 to February 12, 1912, when he died. Earlier, he had come to the area as one of the builders of the C&O Railway's terminals, and had served as the first mayor of Newport News after it became an independent city in 1896. It was on March 14, 1914 that Albert Lloyd Hopkins, a young New Yorker trained in engineering, succeeded Post as president of the company. In May 1915 while traveling to England on shipyard business aboard , Albert L. Hopkins tenure and life ended prematurely when that ship was

torpedo A modern torpedo is an underwater ranged weapon launched above or below the water surface, self-propelled towards a target, and with an explosive warhead designed to detonate either on contact with or in proximity to the target. Historically, s ...

ed and sunk by a German U-boat off Queenstown on the Irish coast. His assistant, Frederic Gauntlett, was also on board, but was able to swim to safety. Homer Lenoir Ferguson was company vice president when Hopkins died, and assumed the presidency the following August. He saw the company through both world wars, became a noted community leader, and was a co-founder of the Mariners' Museum with Archer Huntington. He served until July 31, 1946, after

had ended on both the European and Pacific fronts. Just northwest of the shipyard,

Hilton Village Hilton Village is a planned English-village-style neighborhood in Newport News, Virginia. Recognized as a pioneering development in urban planning, it is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The neighborhood was built between 1918 ...

, one of the first planned communities in the country, was built by the federal government to house shipyard workers in 1918. The planners met with the wives of shipyard workers. Based on their input 14 house plans were designed for the projected 500 English-village-style homes. After the war, in 1922, Henry Huntington acquired it from the government, and helped facilitate the sale of the homes to shipyard employees and other local residents. Three streets there were named after Post, Hopkins, and Ferguson.

Navy orders during and after World War I

The ''Lusitania'' incident was among the events that brought the United States into World War I. Between 1918 and 1920 NNS delivered 25

destroyer In naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a fleet, convoy or battle group and defend them against powerful short range attackers. They were originally developed i ...

s, and after the war it began building aircraft carriers. was delivered in 1934, and NNS went on to build and .

Ocean liners

After World War I NNS completed a major reconditioning and refurbishment of the

ocean liner An ocean liner is a passenger ship primarily used as a form of transportation across seas or oceans. Ocean liners may also carry cargo or mail, and may sometimes be used for other purposes (such as for pleasure cruises or as hospital ships). Ca ...

. Before the war she had been the German liner ''Vaterland'', but the start of hostilities found her laid up in

New York Harbor New York Harbor is at the mouth of the Hudson River where it empties into New York Bay near the East River tidal estuary, and then into the Atlantic Ocean on the east coast of the United States. It is one of the largest natural harbors in t ...

and she had been seized by the US Government in 1917 and converted into a troopship. War duty and age meant that all wiring, plumbing, and interior layouts were stripped and redesigned while her hull was strengthened and her boilers converted from coal to oil while being refurbished. Virtually a new ship emerged from NNS in 1923, and SS ''Leviathan'' became the

flagship A flagship is a vessel used by the commanding officer of a group of naval ships, characteristically a flag officer entitled by custom to fly a distinguishing flag. Used more loosely, it is the lead ship in a fleet of vessels, typically the fi ...

of United States Lines. In 1927 NNS launched the world's first significant

turbo-electric A turbo-electric transmission uses electric generators to convert the mechanical energy of a turbine (steam or gas) into electric energy, which then powers electric motors and converts back into mechanical energy that power the driveshafts. Tur ...

ocean liner: Panama Pacific Line's . At the time she was also the largest merchant ship yet built in the United States, although she was a modest size compared with the biggest European liners of her era. NNS launched ''California''s

sister ship A sister ship is a ship of the same class or of virtually identical design to another ship. Such vessels share a nearly identical hull and superstructure layout, similar size, and roughly comparable features and equipment. They often share a ...

s ''

'' in 1928 and ''

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, Ma ...

'' in 1929. NNS followed them by launching two even larger turbo-electric liners for Dollar Steamship Company: the in 1930, followed by her sister in 1931. was launched in 1939 and entered service with United States lines shortly before World War II but soon returned to the shipyard for conversion to a troopship, USS ''West Point''.

Navy orders before and during World War II

Launch of USS Birmingham (CL-62) at Newport News Shipbuilding on 20 March 1942 (NH 75592)

By 1940 the Navy had ordered a battleship, seven more aircraft carriers and four cruisers. During

, NNS built ships as part of the U.S. Government's Emergency Shipbuilding Program, and swiftly filled requests for " Liberty ships" that were needed during the war. It founded the

North Carolina Shipbuilding Company North Carolina Shipbuilding Company was a shipyard in Wilmington, North Carolina, created as part of the U.S. Government's Emergency Shipbuilding Program in the early days of World War II. From 1941 through 1946, the company built 243 ships in all ...

, an emergency yard on the banks of the Cape Fear River and launched its first Liberty ship before the end of 1941, building 243 ships in all, including 186 Libertys. For its contributions during the war, the Navy awarded the company its "E" pennant for excellence in shipbuilding. NNS ranked 23rd among United States corporations in the value of wartime production contracts.

Post-war ships

In the post-war years NNS built the famous passenger liner , which set a transatlantic speed record that still stands today. In 1954 NNS, Westinghouse and the Navy developed and built a prototype

nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat from nu ...

for a carrier propulsion system. NNS designed in 1960. In 1959 NNS launched its first nuclear-powered

, . In the 1970s, NNS launched two of the largest tankers ever built in the western hemisphere and also constructed three

liquefied natural gas carrier An LNG carrier is a tank ship designed for transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG). History The first LNG carrier '' Methane Pioneer'' () carrying , classed by Bureau Veritas, left the Calcasieu River on the Louisiana Gulf coast on 25 January ...

s – at over 390,000 deadweight tons, the largest ever built in the United States. NNS and Westinghouse Electric Company jointly form Offshore Power Systems to build floating nuclear power plants for Public Service Electric and Gas Company. In the 1980s, NNS produced a variety of Navy products, including nuclear aircraft carriers and nuclear attack submarines. Since 1999 the shipyard has produced only warships for the Navy.

Submarine building problems

In 2007, the US Navy found that workers had used incorrect metal to fuse together pipes and joints on submarines under construction and this could have led to cracking and leaks. In 2009 it was found that bolts and fasteners in weapons-handling systems on four Navy submarines, , , , and , were installed incorrectly, delaying the launching of the boats while the problems were corrected.

Mergers, realignment, and spin-off

In 1968, Newport News merged with Tenneco Corporation. In 1996, Tenneco initiated a spinoff of Newport News into an independent company (Newport News Shipbuilding). The company was purchased by Northrop Grumman in 2001 for $2.6 billion and renamed "Northrop Grumman Newport News". This division was merged with Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in 2008 and given the name " Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding". Three years later, the company was spun off as

, Inc., which trades under the symbol HII on the

New York Stock Exchange The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed ...

Presidents

* Matt Mulherin * Jennifer Boykin (2017–present)

Ships built

File:Northrop Grumman Newport News 032007 tugboat dorothy.png, ''Dorothy'' File:USS Virginia LOC npcc 32728.jpg, ''Virginia'' File:Moore-McCormack-Good-Neighbor-passenger-liner.jpg, ''California'' File:USS Shark SSN 591.jpg, ''Shark'' File:USS Mississippi (CGN-40).JPG, ''Mississippi'' File:USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72) underway in the Atlantic Ocean on 30 January 2019 (190130-N-PW716-1312).JPG, ''Abraham Lincoln'' Other ships built at the Newport News yard include: * nuclear-powered aircraft carriers: ** , under construction ** USS Doris Miller (CVN-81), under construction * Liberty ship transports for the Allies during

* nuclear-powered submarines * nuclear-powered submarines

Gallery

USS Ronald Reagan christening.jpg, Ronald Reagan Christening Northrop Grumman Newport News 032007 015.png, North Yard Crane F-A-18F Super Hornet approaches to USS Gerald R. Ford.jpg, NNSX 41809 June 10 2008.JPG, Newport News Shipbuilding Foundry & Switch Engine

Ships rebuilt

*, the first sea-going electric power plant for emergencies *, wrecked ship that was salvaged and her still-operational stern and machinery spaces rebuilt and used in the construction of a new chemical tanker, the Chemical Discoverer, later renamed Chemical Pioneer

World War II Shipbuilding Facilities

References

External links

* {{Coord, 36.99208, -76.44507, type:landmark_region:US, display=title Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding companies of the United States Companies based in Newport News, Virginia Maritime history of Virginia Shipyards building World War II warships