"That same year Commodore Jesse Wilkerson Commandant of the Gosport Navy Yard confirmed to Secretary of the Navy George Bancroft "It is my duty, however to appraise the Department, that a majority of them are negro slaves, and that a large portion of those employed in the Ordinary for many years, have been of that description, but by what authority I am unable to say as nothing can be found in the records of my office on the subject – These men have been examined by the Surgeon of the Yard and regularly Shipped for twelve months."