Talking Shop: Celebrating NNSY’s Shipwrights (Shop 89)

During the “Age of Sail,” stretching to the mid-19th century, shipwrights at the Gosport Shipyard—now known as Norfolk Naval Shipyard (NNSY)—were the backbone of wooden shipbuilding. Armed with hand saws, historic cutting tools known as adzes, and raw muscle, these master craftsmen carved towering oak hulls, laid massive wooden keel blocks, and caulked seams to keep the young nation’s fleet afloat. They were the physical architects of wood, molding raw timber into instruments of global maritime power.