View showing several spectators on vessels in the Delaware River watching the launch of the largest sailing ship built to that date by the U.S. Several tall ships, rowboats, and sailboats filled with spectators congest the river as the ship glides out from its storage house. In the background, cityscape is barely visible behind the several masts of the spectator ships. Pennsylvania, one of nine ships authorized by Congress in April 1816 to carry at least 74 guns, was designed and built 1821-1837 by Samuel Humphreys in the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The ship remained in service until 1842 when she became a receiving ship for the Norfolk Navy Yard, where she was burned at the onset of the Civil War. The first U.S. Navy Yard was established by shipbuilder Joshua Humphreys and Secretary of the Navy Benjamin Stoddert in 1801 in Southwark. The facility, which built, overhauled, stored, and disposed of warships, operated in Southwark until 1876 when the Navy Yard enlarged and relocated to League Island., Philadelphia on Stone, POS 803, Historical Society of Pennsylvania: Bc 56 Penna 381
Creator
Lehman, George, d. 1870, artist
Date
[1837]
Location
Historical Society of Pennsylvania HSP Bc 56 Penna 381
