The Drydock at Port Royal Naval Station
USS AMPHITRITE (BM-2) Drydocked at the old Parris Island South Carolina Naval Station, 1895-96. Naval History and Heritage Command Photo: https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/NH-82000/NH-82748.html
The Drydock at Port Royal Naval Station, South Carolina: The US Navy captured Port Royal Sound in November of 1861. Port Royal was used as a staging area for further operations by the South Atlantic Blockading Squadron on the South Carolina and Georgia Coasts. Following the war, Navy operations ceased. In 1876, a bill backed by Congressman Robert Smalls, established Port Royal as "Naval Station of the Forth Class." (Robert Smalls came to fame in 1862 when led a group of enslaved sailors and their families out of Charleston harbor aboard the steamer Planter. He would go on to serve the United States Navy including as pilot aboard USS Keokuk on April 7th, 1863 and as a ship captain under US Army charter.) At first the naval station was quite modest. The old ship of the line USS New Hampshire returned to Port Royal along with USS Pawnee, now a coal hulk.
Robert Smalls continued to push for expansion and enlargement to the Port Royal Naval Station. In 1882 Congress appropriated funds for a permanent Naval Station, and in 1883 the US Navy began purchasing land on Parris Island. Appropriations remained very small in the early years. In 1886 Congressman Smalls called for additional funds for the naval station saying that, “Let me state further that there is not money enough to hoist the American flag on the naval station there. There is not money enough to erect a flagstaff to hoist the flag on; and I do not think the chairman of the committee should object to having the American flag hoisted on one of our naval stations” (Congressional Record - House. June 1886. Pg. 6183.)
In 1890 the US Navy received funding to build what would be the largest drydock in the United States. Work began in 1891. It would be interrupted by the Great Sea Islands Hurricane of 1893 which devastated the area and which is one of the deadliest storms ever to hit the United States. (“Port Royal Naval Station”. South Carolina Encyclopedia.)
Photo: Robert Smalls as a United States Congressman in the 1870s. Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/2017893186/
Photo: The Drydock on Parris Island under construction. From “Know It All” - a project of South Carolina ETV: https://www.knowitall.org/photo/parris-island-naval-dry-dock-history-sc-slide-collection
In 1895, the drydock was complete. A Naval History & Heritage Command photo shows the monitor USS AMPHITRITE in the drydock in 1895/1896. Port Royal Naval Station would support the US Navy during the American Civil War.
In 1901, Senator Benjamin Tillman would succeed in having the Naval Station moved from Port Royal to Charleston. (Tilman is probably best known by naval enthusiasts as the reason the "Tilman Battleship" designs were created. He also was known in South Carolina as "Pitchfork Ben" for reasons beyond the scope of this page but worth exploring. Tilman sought to undermine and eliminate African American power at every turn. Advocating for the removal of the Naval Station at Port Royal to Charleston fits in line with his many other efforts.)
Parris Island would become a recruit depot for the United States Marine Corps. The drydock, no longer capable of taking the rapidly expanding ships of the Dreadnought era, would eventually fall in to disrepair. It's outline can still be seen, though it looks more like a small tidal creek than the drydock it was.
The United States Marine Corps website has articles on the early years of Parris Island:
USS Indiana, BB-1, at the Drydock at Port Royal Naval Station, Parris Island Museum
Passaic Class Monitor USS Nantucket at Port Royal in 1898. USS Nantucket was operated by the North Carolina Naval Militia. North Carolina Museum of History
Entrance to the Old Drydock - Parris Island Audio Tour: https://www.youraudiotour.com/tours/parris-island-museum-iron-mike-tour/stops/14873
The Old Dry Dock may be seen from the air on Google Maps beside the Lyceum at Parris Island. (Map embedded below.)