THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 16, 1995 TAG: 9507140598
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: George Tucker
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
The role played by Norfolk-area African-American stonecutters in building the first dry dock in the Western Hemisphere is a little-known episode in local history.
On March 3, 1827, Congress passed ``An Act for the Gradual Improvement of the Navy of the United States.'' This authorized President John Quincy Adams to order the construction of two dry docks. The sites chosen were the Charleston (i.e., Boston) Navy Yard and the Gosport Navy Yard, now the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. The Gosport dock was the first to be completed.
Col. Laomi Baldwin (1780-1838), a Massachusetts native and America's most prestigious civil engineer, designed and supervised the construction of both facilities. In accepting a yearly stipend of $5,000, Baldwin insisted that his responsibility and authority for the two projects be absolute and unquestioned. It was a wise precaution since his insistence on employing black stonecutters instead of white ones on the Gosport dock got him into hot water later with the authorities in Washington.
Work on the Gosport dock began in November 1827, but it was not until March 1834 that it was completed, at a cost of $974,365.55. Once the big hole on the western side of the Southern Branch of the Elizabeth River had been excavated and the preliminary foundations were laid, the dock was ready to receive its stone lining - beautifully crafted granite blocks shipped from Quincy, Mass. They had been so well-dressed at the quarry that less than $100 was spent on their alteration once they arrived at Gosport.
Since the stones still had to be carefully placed in position, Baldwin adopted an economy measure to save expenses. Having become well aware of the skill of several Norfolk-area slave stonecutters, he hired them from their owners for 62 cents a day each plus a bonus of 10 cents a day each. Baldwin's action caused an uproar among white Norfolk-area stonecutters who tried to undermine his authority by appealing to navy yard officials. When that failed, they fired off a letter to the Navy Department accusing Baldwin of wasting funds by hiring incompetent black workers. Then their letter of protest took on a more sinister tone. It ended by raising concern about the social implications of choosing black laborers instead of whites.
Throughout the firestorm Baldwin remained calm. Insisting that he ``always worked for the best interest of his employers,'' he pointed out that 72 cents a day was being paid for each black laborer, while whites demanded wages ranging from $1.50 to $2 a day. The 10-cent bounty, he added, also acted as a powerful incentive for the slaves to work hard.
To give further emphasis to his decision, Baldwin wrote: ``They (i.e., the slave stonecutters) work with as much steadiness and cheerfulness as the whites, and the fear of losing their ten cents, if they are lazy and inattentive, saves the expense of overseers.'' He also insisted that the blacks were better suited physically for the task than their white counterparts.
Still, the barrage of complaints continued, but Baldwin eventually not only had the satisfaction of being upheld in his decision, Norfolk-area African-American stonecutters continued to work on the dry dock until its completion in March 1834. Before that, the dock was deemed sufficiently ready to receive its first ship. This took place June 17, 1833, when it accommodated the 74-gun ship of the line Delaware.
From then on the venerable and still-used dock has played an important role in local history. In 1861, when the Federal forces evacuated the navy yard, an unsuccessful attempt was made to blow it up. Later, the dock was used for the construction of the CSS Virginia, the former USS Merrimack that had been partially burned when the Federals abandoned the yard. Again, in 1862, when the Confederate forces fled the Norfolk area, another attempt was made to destroy the dock.
Fortunately, that was also unsuccessful, and the dock still remains as a monument to the engineering skills of Baldwin and its builders - both white and black.
KEYWORDS: U.S. NORFOLK NAVAL SHIPYARD HISTORY GOSPORT NAVY YARD by CNB