May 19, 2008 Navy Times by Richard Pyle, AP.
Audry Lyons was a $40 a week parts inspector at the Brooklyn Navy Yard in 1944 when Margaret Truman invited her to help christen the new battleship USS Missouri. Margaret was the daughter of US Senator Harry Truman a needed Audry's help to break the bottle on her thrid try.
The Missouri was the last famous warship be launched at this historical Navy Yard.
Today, there is a lot of activity at the former bases 40+ buildings which are used by small entrepreneurs and companies. Several of the six dry docks remain and are still used for ship repairs
However, the place fell into disrepair after closing in the 1970s.The first US Naval ship to be built there was the USS Adams, a frigate of 28 guns. The last was the amphibious transport Duluth in 1965.
Other famous ships were the Fulton II, the Navy's first steam-powered warship in 1837. The frigate Niagara helped lay the first trans-Atlantic cable. The USS Monitor was built elsewhere, but commissioned here. The USS Maine was commissioned in 1889 and the USS Arizona in 1911.
So, today, two Brooklyn Navy yard ships are a few hundred yards from each other in Pearl Harbor, the Arizona and Missouri.
A Lot of History here. --Cooter
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