The Appropriation Act approved 30 June 1902 provided
$150,000
3 March 1901 for the fiscal year ending to the Secretary of the Navy to enable
him to acquire land for a naval station and barbor and channel defense at Pearl Harbor. The Bureau of Equipment made an effort to obtain prices and options on the land recommended for naval use at Pearl Harbor but without success. The owners refusing to name what was considered to be a reasonable price, the Acting Commandant of the Naval Station Hawaii was directed to institute condemnation proceedings in June 1901 for about 800 acres of land in and about Pearl Harbor
necessary for a naval station. The condenmation. proceedings were commenced on 6 July 1901 under the Hawaiian Law of Eminent Domain. This date of ? July 1901 is consideredas the date of acquisition by the Government. The land occupied by the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard was included in the land acquired under this suit.
In 1902 the bar at the entrance to Pearl Harbor was dredged under the supervision of the War Department and in 1903 the Bureau of Equipment recommendedthe acquisitionof the southerntip of WaipioPeninsula as part of the land necessary for harbor and channel defense. The Act of 13 May 1908 authorized dredging an entrance Pearl Harbor and $l!.oo,ooo was made available for this year. This Act called for dredging a channel from the sea of sufficient depth and width to admit the largest
channel to purpose the first harbor to the ships. This
Act of 13 May 1908 also authorized the Navy Yard Pearl Harbor and the date is considered as the Shipyard's official birthday. This same Act made available $300,000 for machine shops, $300,000 for store houses
and $100,000 for immediate Yard development.
In furtherance, a board ordered to meet in July 1908 to report upon plans for Pearl Harbor. On 3 July 1908 the Chief Constructor of the Navy, W. L. Capps, arrived
was
to inspect the site of the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. He recommended that no provision be made for shipbuilding as it could be done more advantageously on the M3.inland and that docks, machine shops and other facilities be determined strictly with reference a ship repair and outfitting yard.
to the necessities
of
The Act of 13 May 1908 also provided for the construction of a drydock at Pearl Harbor; with a limitof costof $2,000,000.The Secretary stated that this would build a dock only about 850 feet long and
that sufficient money ($3,500,000) be authorized to increase the length to 1,1l!.0 feet. It was his plan to divide this dock athwartshipsso that it would not only take the largestbattleship which might be built, but to arrange it so that a part, about half, recommended
could be filled and discharged independently of the rest of the dock. The Bureau of Yards and Docks then prepared plans for such a dock, 1191 feet in length, on which the lowest formal bid was $2,l!.22,900. Congress refused to obligatethis sum. New bids were asked for on a smaller dock with the same features, and the San Francisco Bridge Company was awarded the contract for a 620-foot dock for $1,760,000 exclusive of piles, if such were found necessary,and such accessories as caisson,pump house, etc. The contract was let on 17 June 1909 and
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