While the Navy Yard was kept busy manufacturing rope and other items for the "New Navy" of steel, it garnereed no orders for ship construction other than minor barges until 1903, when it was directed to build one of two steel training ships authorized that year. The yard's first steel ship, however, was in some ways a throwback to an earlier era, for, with her sister Intrepid, USS Cumberland was the last naval vessel to be solely powered by sail. Here the ship is seen nearly ready for her Aug. 1904 launching.
 
 
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