Portsmouth is at the bottom of Chesapeake Bay and has Norfolk on the opposite side of the river. It is both a US Navy base and a large repair area as well.

This was straight across the river from our berth and work went on round the clock.

Departing we went past the operational base which was mostly empty:

it was not hard to imagine that the USN had more ships in overhaul status in this area than most navies had in total.