Portsmouth

Port in Rockingham County, southeastern New Hampshire, USA, on the estuary of the Piscataqua River; the state's only seaport; population (2000) 20,800. Founded 1623, Portsmouth was the state capital 1679-1775.

The nearby US Navy Yard (on Seavy's Island) dates from the 1790s and specializes in submarine construction and maintenance.

The John Paul Jones House is here. The treaty ending the Russo-Japanese War was signed here in 1905.

Portsmouth

Port and independent city in southeast Virginia, USA, on the Elizabeth River; population (2000) 100,600. Situated near the mouth of Chesapeake Bay, on the southern shore of a natural deepwater harbour, it forms the Port of Hampton Roads together with Newport News and Norfolk, headquarters of the US Navy Atlantic Fleet. It is a US naval training centre and has the largest naval shipbuilding yard in the world. Manufactured goods include electronic equipment, chemicals, clothing, and processed food.

Founded in 1752, it was named after Portsmouth in England. Portsmouth's first boatyard was built in 1767, and first US naval shipyard in 1801. The port was a British naval base during the American Revolution. During the Civil War, the Confederates held the shipyard from 1861 to 1862, and converted and armoured the Virginia from a former steamship, the USS Merrimack. It exchanged fire with the Monitor, a Union warship, on March 6 1862 at the historic Battle of Hampton Roads, the first engagement between ironclad battleships.

Sites of interest include Trinity Episcopal Church (1762), and the Naval Shipyard Museum.