New York City Mesothelioma

Also known as the New York Naval Shipyard or the New York Navy Yard, the shipyard most commonly known as the Brooklyn Navy Yard was one of America’s oldest. Situated on the East River in Wallabout Basin, the site was first used after the American Revolution to built merchant vessels but was purchased by the military in 1801 and became an official U.S. navy yard in 1806.

Less than 10 years later, the shipyard became well-known for the building of Robert Fulton’s steam frigate, Fulton, and by the time the Civil War rolled around, the Brooklyn Navy Yard employed some 6,000 men to build ships for the war effort. Civil War ironclads, like the famous Monitor, were built here and, during that time, a Naval Laboratory was set up at the yard to prepare the medicines used by the Union Army.

After the Civil War, however, the shipyard returned totally to the business of building ships, and as World War I approached, the yard’s roster of employees grew to about 18,000 workers. It was the next war, however, that saw the Brooklyn Navy Yard reach its pinnacle. During this time, 70,000 individuals were employed at the yard, including many women who were entering the work force for the first time, serving mostly as mechanics and technicians. Together, these men and women at the Brooklyn yard built battleships like the USS Missouri and North Carolina, carriers, and more.

Shipbuilding continued until 1966, when the New York Naval Shipyard/Brooklyn Navy Yard finally closed its gates. At the time of closing, 9,000 employees were still on the roster. The city purchased the shipyard property a year later and by 1971 it had reopened as an industrial park.

Asbestos Exposure

As was true with all of the U.S. Military-owned shipyards that operated throughout the first three-quarters of the twentieth century, the ships built at the Brooklyn Navy Yard contained large amounts of asbestos, which was known to be an excellent insulator. Inexpensive and readily available, it was used to insulate boilers, generators, turbines, and other equipment and to wrap wires, pipes, and anything else that generated lots of heat.

Those who worked in the shipyard, especially during the World War II years, generally worked with asbestos on a daily basis, and because they were unaware of the hazards of this toxic material, they did so without wearing protective gear. Decades later, often long after their shipbuilding days had ended, these Brooklyn Navy Yard workers discovered they had developed asbestos-related diseases.