DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker has to say about the Confederate Naval Works at Goose Creek. Now, you might not think of Texas as a seafaring kind of place — all wide-open plains and cattle drives and such. But pull up a chair, because Goose Creek has a story that runs deep, and I mean that almost literally.
It starts in 1854, when brothers Thomas and John Chubb bought land in the William Scott League, right there on the east bank of Goose Creek at the mouth of Tabbs Bay. On that piece of ground, they established the Chubb Shipyard — and they did it before the Civil War even began. Texas shipbuilding was, at that time, a developing industry.
Nothing settled, nothing guaranteed. Just ambition and water and brothers who knew what to do with both. Then the war came.
Now, the Confederacy had a problem — a serious one. The Union held an enormous industrial advantage, and everyone on both sides knew it. So the Confederate government made a point of encouraging Texans to lean into manufacturing ventures that could help the military effort.
The Chubb brothers heard that call. And they answered it. They established the Confederate Naval Works at Goose Creek.
Right there where the shipyard already stood. And what they built and repaired at that site — well, that turned out to matter quite a bit. Thomas Chubb, the elder of the two as far as this story is concerned, didn't just run the yard from shore.
He served in the Texas Marine Department — an element of the Confederate States Army, mind you, operatin' independently of the Confederate Navy. He rose to the rank of Captain. And eventually, he became superintendent of the Confederate Naval Works itself.
Here's where the craft of it gets interesting. The ships coming out of that Goose Creek yard weren't just vessels — they were purpose-built for a very particular kind of work. The Union had thrown up a blockade along the Gulf Coast, and the Confederacy needed a way through it.
The answer was a shallow draft. See, a centerboard schooner, riding low and light through the water, could slip through shallow areas of the Gulf of Mexico where deep draft vessels simply could not pass. The design and structure of these ships were, according to the marker itself, integral to the Texas Marine Department's effectiveness in running that blockade.
And they worked. Among the successful ships that came out of Goose Creek were the Royal Yacht, the Bagdad, the Phoebe, the Henrietta, the Marguereta, and the Altha Brooks. Six vessels, each one threading the needle past Union ships in waters those Union ships couldn't even reach.
After the war, the yard didn't go quiet. The Goose Creek shipyard shifted its work — building ships for the federal government and for private mariners — until Thomas Chubb left the business in 1869. The very next year, 1870, the Thomas B.
Gaillard family purchased the former shipyard and established what became known as Gaillard's Landing. And then, in the way that Texas land tends to rewrite itself, the site eventually became part of the Goose Creek oil fields. From timber and sail to crude oil.
From blockade runners to the petroleum age. That little patch of ground on the east bank of Goose Creek has been a lot of things — and every one of them, it seems, was exactly what the moment required.
What the marker says
In 1854, brothers Thomas and John Chubb bought land in the William Scott League on the east bank of Goose Creek at the mouth of Tabbs Bay. On this site, they established the Chubb Shipyard prior to the Civil War. At the time, Texas shipbuilding was a developing industry. During the war, however, in an effort to compensate for the Union's industrial advantage, the Confederate government encouraged Texans to engage in manufacturing ventures that would aid its miltary effort. The Chubb brothers responded to this call with the Confederate Naval Works at Goose Creek, which built and repaired vessels during the war. Thomas Chubb also served in the Texas Marine Department, an element of the Confederate States Army operating indepently of the Confederate Navy. He obtained the rank of Captain and later became superintendent of the Confederate Naval Works. The design and structure of ships built at the Goose Creek shipyard were integral to the Department's effectiveness in running the Union blockade. The shallow draft of the centerboard schooners made them suitable for blockade running in shallow areas of the Gulf of Mexico, where deep draft vessels could not pass. These successful ships included the Royal Yacht, Bagdad, Phoebe, Henrietta, Marguereta and Altha Brooks. An important contributor to the Texas naval and industrial effort during the Civil War, the Goose Creek shipyard later built ships for the federal government and private mariners until Thomas Chubb left the business in 1869. The following year, the Thomas B. Gaillard family purchased the former shipyard and established Gaillard's Landing. Later, the site became part of the Goose Creek oil fields. (2007)