As with the first six, later naval shipyards were sometimes created to fill an immediate military need. The War of 1812, for instance, prompted the building of the two Great Lakes yards. The Mound City yard was established during the Civil War, strategically located near the confluence of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers to build and repair Union gunboats. Although U.S. naval vessels are today built in private shipyards, four navy yards still actively serve the fleet. [Illustration: _1833 view of one of the yard’s wharves, by William Bennett. Beyond, decommissioned_ Independence _and_ Columbus _are roofed over for protection_.] Growth of the Yard When Captain William Bainbridge arrived in Boston aboard U.S.S. (United States Ship) _Constitution_ in February 1813, he had reason to be satisfied. While the U.S. Army faltered early in the War of 1812, a string of naval victories over British ships was boosting public confidence. Two months earlier, the big frigate commanded by Bainbridge had engaged H.M.S. (His Majesty’s Ship) _Java_ off the coast of Brazil. _Java_ was the faster ship, but _Constitution_ had heavier guns. By skillful maneuvering. _Constitution_ kept them trained on the British frigate, pounding _Java_ with broadsides until its colors came down. Crew and commander were met with parades in Boston, but Bainbridge had little time to enjoy the acclaim. He was immediately faced with a task that, if not as exciting as a sea battle, was nevertheless formidable. He had temporarily relinquished command of the Charlestown Navy Yard when he sailed on _Constitution_. While he was gone, Navy Secretary Paul Hamilton charged the yard with building one of the nation’s first ships-of-the-line—the battleships of their day. As things now stood, that was an impossibility: Charlestown simply lacked the facilities for such an undertaking. Bainbridge, who at 37 had already seen extensive naval action and been imprisoned by Barbary pirates, wrote soon after becoming commandant in 1812: “No period of my naval life has been more industrious or fatiguing.” He was shorthanded and hampered by bad weather, conditions that must have sorely tested the endurance of a man with his temperament: aggressive, volatile, not noted for his patience. When he took command of the Charlestown yard, Bainbridge pressed the Washington bureaucracy to authorize improvements to a facility that suffered, in his words, from “mismanagement and neglect.” [Illustration: _Captain William Bainbridge was the Charlestown yard’s second commandant (1812-15) and captain of the first ship built there, U.S.S._ Independence.]