Upshur, A. P.; et al. Navy Yard, Norfolk (Doc. No. 205) Letter from the Secretary of the Navy, transmitting Reports of the Commissioner appointed to make an investigation at the Gosport Navy Yard, &c. Washington DC: Government Printing Office, 1842. [11660]
Removed, 8 3/4 x 5 5/8 inches, 224 clean pp. Good. Pamphlet.
27th Congress, Second Session, House of Representatives, Doc. No. 205.
Several managers had been accused of malfeasance and the Norfolk Navy Yard, setting of a detailed investigation of the charges. This record of 224 pages includes many verbatim interviews with workmen and others, and gives incredible insight into the relations between the men working at the shipyard, the kind of work that they did, whether or not private work was done on the side, the treatment of the workers, &c. There are charts of articles and their costs, in minute detail. These include varnish, sewing twine, paints, soap, tar, tallow, bunting, copper tacks, sail needles, rope, sheet lead, &c., &c. There is also a statement of prices for 1838-1848, comparing the prices of several wholesalers. This includes charts of prices for many other articles, such as brushes, bunting, cotton duck, lead, palm irons, pine wood, pitch, turpentine, bonnetline, shovels, soap, tin, copper tacks, iron tacks, hand trumpets, chalk, olive oil, &c., &c.
There are charts for the requistions of specific ships, such as the U.S.S. Constitution, sloop of war Yorktown, US Ship of War Dale, repairs for the schooner Shark, repairs for the ship Brandywine, repairs for ship Dale, as well as accounts for stores kept on hand for future unknown repairs.
A very full account of the transactions between managers and workmen, and suppliers and costs, at the Norfolk Navy Yard in the early 1840s.
