The origins of today’s mighty Norfolk Navy Yard naval base can be traced to 1 November 1767 with the creation of a yard, the Gosport Shipyard, by Andrew Sprowle on the western shore of the Elizabeth River in Norfolk County in Virginia. Sprowle was a merchant and landowner in Portsmouth, Virginia and an occasional British naval agent. He had emigrated from Scotland in the mid-18th century to seek his fortune in America and settled in Virginia.
The shipyard he founded was soon successful with several important clients, including the British Crown. Sprowle was loyal to Britain, and in 1775, during the American Revolution, he was forced to flee his home and businesses, which included the Gosport Shipyard, which was seized by the newly formed Commonwealth of Virginia. The shipyard continued to operate successfully until 1779, when British troops burned it to the ground.
Following the Declaration of Independence and the formation of a Federal Government for America in 1794, the United States Congress passed ‘An Act to Provide a
