Document Spotlight: No Sleeping in the Yard

Recently, transcriber Sharpjohng came across an interesting passage in a document. In order to maintain order at the Gosport, Virginia, Naval Yard, it became necessary to proscribe a list of regulations. Many of them are relatively normal rules pertaining to naval or construction sites: protect the wooden ship materials from the weather; keep construction clutter to a minimum. One rule, though, strikes the twenty-first century reader as a little curious:

“…discourage the Workmen from Sleeping in the yard, frequent quarrels having hitherto taken place.”

It is hard to know how common it was for workers to sleep right on the construction site; one also wonders whether workers were sleeping while they were supposed to be working, or whether this was a barrack-type situation. Finally, exactly how did this lead to frequent quarrels?

Red the document here: http://wardepartmentpapers.org/scripto/mediawiki/index.php?title=.MTUzNTM.NDI3OA&rcid=2073.

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