Brooklyn Navy Yard: work-history and asbestos evidence
Brooklyn Navy Yard combines one of New York’s most important industrial histories with unusually specific records about shipyard trades. For a family reconstructing old work, the ship, trade, shop and years can be powerful starting points.
What the public record tells us
A major naval shipbuilding workplace
The Brooklyn Navy Yard’s official history dates the federal shipyard to 1801 and continuous operation through 1966. Naval History and Heritage Command reports that more than 160 ships were built there.
Tens of thousands of workers and named trades
Naval History and Heritage Command reports wartime employment reaching 71,000 civilian and naval personnel and specifically identifies production work by pipefitters, electricians, welders, crane operators, truck drivers and sheet-metal workers.
A former Navy Yard welder appears in asbestos litigation
In Berger v Amchem Products, a New York court described Herman Berger as a welder at Brooklyn Navy Yard from 1941 to 1944 and stated that he was exposed to asbestos there before later automotive work.
How this can help reconstruct a work history
Historical records are most useful when they are connected to the person who actually worked there: the years, department, trade, tasks, equipment, contractors and coworkers remembered by the family. A documented workplace history can guide the questions; the individual work history supplies the context.
Which ship or shop?
Ship name, dry dock, shop, pier or repair assignment can narrow a very large shipyard history.
What trade?
Pipefitting, electrical work, welding, sheet metal, insulation, machining and repair work can lead to different equipment and records.
What years?
Wartime construction, postwar modernization and later carrier work involved different ships and projects.
Primary and authoritative sources
- Naval History and Heritage Command — New York (Brooklyn) Navy Yard U.S. Navy history
- Brooklyn Navy Yard — History of the Yard Official site history
- New York Supreme Court — Berger v Amchem Products (2006) Court decision
Continue the investigation
New York City and Long Island research → veterans and military exposure → jobsite investigation →