The Quasi-War with France was over, and America was looking to smaller vessels to protect it's own shores and American merchants in foreign ports such as the Barbary coast. But keeping these smaller vessels in the waters and exposed to the sun was causing rapid decay and leading to constant repairs. President Jefferson felt that a better use of the nation's wealth was to protect and save "what we already possess", rather than to construct new vessels. So in his second annual message of 1802 Jefferson proposed to build a dry-dock where the ships could be laid up on a dry and sheltered bed.
"Presuming it will be deemed expedient to expend annually a convenient sum toward providing the naval defense which our situation may require, I can not but recommend that the first appropriations for that purpose may go to the saving what we already possess. No cares, no attentions, can preserve vessels from rapid decay which lie in water and exposed to the sun. These decays require great and constant repairs, and will consume, if continued, a great portion of the moneys destined to naval purposes. To avoid this waste of our resources it is proposed to add to our navy-yard here a dock within which our present vessels may be laid up dry and under cover from the sun. Under these circumstances experience proves that works of wood will remain scarcely at all affected by time. The great abundance of running water which this situation possesses, at heights far above the level of the tide, if employed as is practiced for lock navigation, furnishes the means for raising and laying up our vessels on a dry and sheltered bed."Jefferson continued by telling the Congress that he would present them with a design of the dry docks drawn up by Benjamin Latrobe one of the architects for the Capitol building. In Jefferson's estimation, the cost of the dry dock would not be much more than the cost of one vessel.
"The plans and estimates of the work, prepared by a person of skill and experience, will be presented to you without delay, and from this it will be seen that scarcely more than has been the cost of 1 vessel is necessary to save the whole, and that the annual sum to be employed toward its completion may be adapted to the views of the Legislature as to naval expenditure.Lattrobe's design used a series of locks to get the ships from the Eastern Branch of the Potomac River and into the dock where the ships would then be pulled entirely out of the water giving them a much longer life. The report was sent to President Jefferson in a letter from Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith. In this letter Robert Smith described the dry dock as "a size sufficient to contain Twelve frigates of 44 guns". The total cost including the locks was to be $417,276. Unfortunately, Congress refused to fund the project and it even became a subject of ridicule.
The oldest dry dock in America today is Dry dock Number One, Norfolk Naval Shipyard. It was put into service in 1834, and has been in service since then. The cost was just under $1 million or more than double the Jefferson's plan. Construction of the dry dock began in 1827. 25 years after Jefferson first proposed it. Shown in the picture above are plans for the dry docks at the Philadelphia Naval shipyard completed in 1851.
A photo of Latrobe's original design for the dry-docks can be viewed here: https://thehillishome.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/1802-Latrobes-Dry-Dock-2.jpg
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/index.php?pid=29444
http://thehillishome.com/2015/04/lost-capitol-hill-thomas-jeffersons-dry-docks/
http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-39-02-0110
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/52/Philadelphia_naval_shipyard_drydock_plan_1848.jpg
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