Mare Island NSY and history

A part of the long closed Mare Island Naval Ship Yard in 2011 - click to enlarge
Photo: U S Navy via www.wikipedia.org

  An article or advertisement that mentioned the city of Vallejo caught my attention some day late last week, and I remember a Navy ship yard and couldn't come up with the name.  Finally it dawned on me, Mare Island, so I just had to look it up.  Here we go. 
  The Navy purchased 900 acres near Vallejo, California in 1853 to build steel and wooden ships and until it's closing in April 1996 it thrived.
  Grown to over 2000 acres by the time it closed many, many ships from 1856 until the end of World War 2 had been built at the yard.  Mare Island at one time was the only Marine Corps Recruit Depot (Boot camp) on the west coast.  Ships important in Navy history came from this yard including the USS Jupiter, a collier (coal refueling ship), which became the USS Langley the Navy first aircraft carrier.  Many, many diesel electric submarines came from Mare Island along with battleships, cruisers and destroyers.
  It is on the National Register of Historic Places and sits empty and in disrepair at the northern end of San Francisco Bay.

The cruiser USS San Francisco, a Mare Island build, passes under the Golden Gate - click
Photo: U S Navy via www.wikipedia.org

USS Langley CV-1 at sea
Photo: U S Navy via www.wikipedia.org