Thomas A Dornin Report 11 May 1849
Gosport Navy Yard
May 11th 1849
Sir,
In pursuance of your order of the 4th Inst I beg leave to submit the I've joined report as the result of my examination and observations obtained to the present Magazine at this station, I also in regard to a site for a new one.
The present building used as a magazine was built many years since my contract is very defective and it's constructions in every respect. The foundations rise about 2 feet above a low depth surface is built of soft bricks which are fast mouldering away & is only pierced here & there with small air holes.
There is no way of getting under the floor to prop it up or give it more strength, should it settle, or break down at any time from the great weight of powder, and other matter which lies upon it. Much loose powder leaking from the barrels finds its way through the planks and seams of the floor, and is deposited up on the ground beneath, to which fire might easily be communicated through the afore mentioned air holes, either, accidentally or maliciously.
The sides of the building together with all the windows are in a decayed state.
The roof leaks in various places which cannot be stopped under existing circumstances. This much for the building itself; now I shall mention its inconveniences and bad arrangements, there is but one room which occupies the whole length and breath of the building which is now filled up to the very roof with powder, in barrels. All the upper tiers of these barrels are so much affected by the heat through the roof, that they have shrunk, the hoops loosened & the powder in quantities leaks out and passes down on the floor & threw it upon the ground under the building. There is also stored in this already encumbered room, quantities of tanks with powder in them, False fires, Port fires, Blue lights, Rockets and fixed ammunitions for small arms; all of which so completely blocks up this room, that there is not safe or ample space to allow a rigid overhauling & servicing of the articles landed from ship magazines. Especially as it often happens that these articles are landed in the night from unavoidable necessity owing to the bad positions of this building, the tides are not allowing the boats to come up within landing distance, and they never can at low tide without extending the bridge out at least twelve hundred yards, which would be an expensive operation. Again when these said articles have been carefully examined, Flints, Screw Firing percussion caps &c have been found mixed up with the fixed ammunitions, neither is there safe or sufficient space to fill the powder from the vessels equipped for Sea.
Adjacent to this principle building, indeed within a few yards of it, is a small wooden building used as a depository for common primers, fuses, percussion caps, & shells, among the latter are sixty six boxes of Stessens shells all loaded.
All these buildings are in immediate danger night and day from the recklessness of youths who make a habit of resorting to the vicinity of these establishments, firing at, & through them, leaping the very walls, and destroying what they can lay their hands on, & only recently they set fire to the woods adjacent to this establishment very much endangering it, & exciting great alarm to the inhabitants of this vicinity.
I think I have here stated enough to show the unsuitableness of this building for a Magazine, to which I might add that there is in and about it government property to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars, daily, & nightly in jeopardy to say nothing of certain costly injury the Hospital is also menaced with.
I have in the foregoing embodied all that seems to be called for by the first portions of your instructions to me. I shall now bring to your notice a more eligible position for a magazine.
The continuation of the land to the westward and adjoining that belonging to our Hospital terminates at Carters Creek, which creek is deep up to its very banks, even at the lowest tide, requiring but a short wharf or bridge to enable the largest size boat to land, or unload.
The ground around and near this landing is admirably adapted as a station for a Navel Powder Magazine.
The entire strip of land from the hospital grounds to the creek contains about twenty acres which can be completely cut off from all intrusions by erecting a brick wall not more than two hundred yards in length.
Large ships can swing safely & freely at their mooring within three hundred yards of this landing, which in point of distance is not more than one & a half miles from Town point, a short mile from the usual anchorage of ships of war, and about six hundred yards from the hospital grounds.
In conclusion I must add that I think the very best position for our magazine would be that at Fort “Norfolk”. But as I understand that the War Department has transferred that whole establishment to the municipal authorities of the City for purposes of a Sanitory character in the event of the cholera reaching here; & as I also find that both the councils & the leading citizens strongly object to our having it as a Powder Depot. Therefore it is, that I confined myself to the descriptions of what I thought the next best site, which is that at Carters Creek.
To illustrate more strongly the danger of an explosion, I have only to mention that you have yourself been compelled on several very recent occasions to dispatch men from this yard down to the magazine to extinguish fires threatening the very gates of the building.
I am Respectfully, Sir
your obedient servant,
Thos A Dornin
Comdr & Asst Inspector of Ordnance
Com John D Sloat
Commandant
Fort Norfolk Documents
1790, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1799,
1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809,
1810, 1811, 1812, 1813, 1814, 1815, 1816, 1817, 1818, 1819
1820,
1850, 1851, 1852, 1853, 1854, 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859
1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869
1870, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879
1880,
Source of Information
National Archives, Record Group 71 Bureau of Yards and Docks
Letters Recieved from Commandants of Navy Yards -- Norfolk
Sept 16 1848 - June 29 1850
Box No. 155, Entry 5